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CUBA 


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THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA  •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


{Frontispiece) 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

MoRRo,  Castle  of  the  Three  Kings 


c  u  li  A 


BY 
IRENE  A.   WRIGHT 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

Neiv    York  igi2 
LONDON:   MACMILLAN  &   GO.   LIMITED 


^b^ 


COPYEIGHT,   1910, 

By  the  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1910. 


NarfajoolJ  ^xzm 

J.  S.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


MY  MOTHER 

CONSTANT,    PATIENT,    TIRELESS    COMPANION 
IN   ALL    MY   WORK 


5f;!J3/0 


FOKEWORD 

This  book  contains  impressions  of  Cuba  gathered  dur- 
ing ten  years'  interrupted  residence  on  this  island,  the 
last  four  of  which  have  been  spent  largely  in  traveling 
hither  and  yon  through  its  provinces,  on  work  entailed 
first  by  connections  with  local  newspapers,  next  by  an 
appointment  as  special  agent  of  the  Cuban  department 
of  agriculture,  and,  finally,  by  the  business  of  editing 
a  monthly  magazine  which  describes  the  island  princi- 
pally from  agricultural  and  industrial  points  of  view. 
What  is  given  of  the  history  of  the  country,  not  as  yet 
scientifically  compiled,  has  been  obtained  in  desultory 
reading,  especially  of  earliest  chronicles. 

The  whole  is  set  forth  as  the  personal  opinion  of  the 
author  only.  After  one  has  resided  in  Cuba  through 
ten  years,  he  ceases  to  hold  any  dogmas  or  doctrines  con- 
cerning this  country,  which  has,  very  justly,  it  seems  to 
me,  been  called  the  land  of  topsy-turvey.  Here  logic 
and  rational  sequence  are  not  the  rule.  Life  runs,  not 
like  reality,  but  after  the  style  of  librettos  of  stage  plays. 
From  largest  to  smallest,  contradiction  exists  in  all  the 
details  of  our  daily  life.  Here  there  are  woods  which 
sink  and  stones  which  float.  Here  the  executive  par- 
dons persons  not  yet  convicted  of  any  crime,  and  the 
congress  legislates  against  incorrigible  suicides.  Business 
firms  send  creditors  no  bills,  but  signed  receipts  instead, 
to  dun  them.     Here  black  is  not  necessarily  black,  but 


viii  FOBEWOBB 

may  carry  a  legal  document  to  prove  its  color  white; 
white  is  not  surely  white,  but  may  only  "  pass  "  for  such. 
Under  these,  and  a  thousand  other  circumstances  of  which 
they  are  typical,  one  learns  to  hesitate  to  call  a  spade 
either  a  qualified  shovel  or  an  agricultural  implement, 
but  compromises  by  stating,  if  one  must  commit  oneself, 
that  at  a  given  time  and  at  a  given  place  it  looked  to  one 
something  like  an  azadon, 

THE   AUTHOR. 
Havana,  Cuba, 
June  1,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

OHAPTEE  PAGE 

I.    Havana  —  The  City  Itself 1 

II.     The  Tourist's  Havana 25 

III.    Days  in  Havana .        .52 

"^    IV.    Abroz  con  Fruoles 83 

V.     Home  Life 98 

^  VI.     Foreigners  in  Cuba 134 

VIT.     "Cuba  Libre"  — A  Farce 164 

VIIL  Wanted:   A  Market  I          ......     194 

IX.     West  by  Water 207 

X.     The  Land 221 

XL     West  by  Kaii 238 

XIL    West  by  Road .250 

XIII.  Tobacco  in  Western  Cuba 268 

XIV.  The  Isle  of  Pines 279 

XV.    The  North  Coast 337 

XVL  Santiago  de  Cuba        .......    352 

XVIL     Our  Lady  of  Cobre 373 

XVIIL     The  South  Coast .383 

XIX.     Santa  Clara 389 

XX.     Camaguey 396 

XXI.     Colonies  of  Oriente 411 

XXIL     The  IsTipe  Bay  District 464 

Index 505 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map  of  Cuba xiv 

Morro,  Castle  of  the  Three  Kings  ....        Frontispiece 

FACEfG  PAGB 

Early  Morning  at  Havana  Harbor  Mouth 1 

A  Cuban  Kitchen 5 

Charcoal  Burners 5 

Ball  Players  on  the  Court 7 

The  Presidential  Palace,  Havana 10 

The  **  Green  Room  "  of  the  Presidential  Palace    ....  10 

The  Templete,  Havana 12 

Havana  City  Mounted  Police 16 

The  Prado,  Havana 16 

Central  Park,  the  Heart  of  Havana 21 

In  Havana's  Modem  Suburbs  —  Jesus  del  Monte         ...  21 

La  India  —  Looking  North  along  Upper  Prado    ....  21 

A  Typical  Havana  Street 23 

Cuban  Pack  Train 26 

A  Country  Milk  Peddler 26 

Entrance  to  Cubanas  Fortress 28 

Cubanas  Salutes 28 

Tower  of  La  Fuerza,  showing  EflBgy,  La  Habana  ...  33 
La  Fuerza,  the  Oldest  Habitable  and  Inhabited  Building  in  the 

Western  Hemisphere 33 

La  Chorrera 37 

Remnant   of   Havana's  Old  City  Walls,  showing  Part  of  the 

Prado  —  Malecon  Drive  in  Havana 37 

Monument  to  Student  Martyrs 44 

Glories  of  a  Funeral  in  Cuba 48 

The  Cathedral.  Havana 53 

Panorama  of  Mariel 56 

Street  Peddler  selling  Tin  and  Other  Kitchen  Ware    ...  60 

The  Bread  Man  who  delivers  *•  Flukes  "  from  Door  to  Door        .  60 

xi 


Xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

Street  Vendor,  Havana 60 

Corridor  of  a  Cuban  Home  of  the  Best  Class        .        .        .         .113 

Portico  of  a  Vuelta  Abajo  Planter's  Home,  Pinar  del  Rio   .         .  113 

A  Country  Family  in  Gala  Array 128 

Window  Courtship,  Havana .128 

A"Compara"  —  Maskers  in  Carnival  Time         ....  148 

Piero  Gueria,  Revolutionary  Leader  of  the  "  Little  War "   .         .  176 
The  Plaza  at  Pinar  del  Rio  City   .         .         .         .         .         .         .234 

Raja  Yoga  Academy,  Pinar  del  Rio       .         .  •       .         .         .         .  240 

Hotel  Ricardo,  Pinar  del  Rio 240 

A  Typical  Country  Road  in  Cuba 254 

The  Peace  Keeper  in  Pinar  del  Rio 257 

Quarry  beyond  Luis  Lazo 261 

Quarrying  Native  Stones  for  Road  Dressing,  in  Pinar  del  Rio    .  261 

Approaching  the  Summit,  Pinar  del  Rio       .         .         .         .         .  263 

On  the  Bayamo  Manzanillo  Highway 266 

On  the  Line  of  the  Bayamo  Manzanillo  Highway        .         .         .  266 

An  Old  Road  in  Northwestern  Pinar  del  Rio       ....  266 

Valley  of  Vinales 268 

Shade-grown  Tobacco  Fields  at  San  Jnan  y  Martinez,  Vuelta 

Abajo 272 

A  Tobacco  Warehouse,  Havana 272 

Casas  River 288 

A  Typical  View  in  the  Isle  of  Pines 293 

An  American  Residence  in  the  Isle  of  Pines         .         .         .         .  300 

Colombo  Bay 300 

Pines  of  the  Isle 332 

A  Young  Isle  Grove 332 

Sibouey,  near  Santiago  de  Cuba  — Monument  to  Shafter's  Com- 
mand, erected  on  Site  of  Americans'  Landing  in  1808  .         .  353 

San  Juan  Hill 353 

Cespedes  Park,  Santiago 357 

Santiago  de  Cuba,  from  Tivoli  Hill 359 

A  Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba 362 

The  Old  Church  at  El  Caney  —  Riddled  by  Shot  and  Shell          .  364 

The  Cemetery  at  Santiago  de  Cuba 368 

A  Back  Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba 368 

View  from  Boniato  Summit  towards  Santiago     .         .         .         .  371 , 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

FACING  PAGE 

Loading  a  Cart  in  the  Field 382 

Cutting  and  Stripping  Cane 382 

At  Sagua  la  Grande «...  394 

In  the  Patio  at  Hotel  Camaguey 408 

Bayamo  Manzanillo  Highway 446 

Hand-shaped  Timbers  of  Valuable  Hardwoods  used  for  Bridge- 
building  in  Cuba 446 

Primitive  Coffc'ee  Mill 448 

The  First  Incline  out  of  Piedra  Gorda  .         .         .         .         .         .  498 


CHAPTER  I 

HAVANA  —  THE    CITY   ITSELF 

Llave  del  Nuevo  Mundo  y  Balarte  de  las  Indias  Occidentales 

I  WISH  that  I  might  see  Havana  again  in  the  light  in 
which  she  appeared  to  me  on  the  early  winter  morning 
of  our  first  arrival  here.  We  were  on  our  steamer^s 
deck  before  daybreak,  as  the  wise  traveler  will  be,  if  he 
would  obtain  at  the  very  commencement  of  his  acquaint- 
ance an  impression  of  Havana  not  likely  to  be  entirely 
obliterated  by  later  familiarity  with  the  city,  no  matter 
what  contempt  this  may  breed. 

Ahead,  over  black  waters,  we  beheld  a  strong  and 
single  light.  It  flashed  encouragement  to  advance. 
We  knew  that  it  was  Morrows.  Presently,  especially 
on  the  left  hand,  we  distinguished  above  the  waters  the 
intenser  black  of  shore.  Later  still  we  saw  that  the 
land  was  divided  from  the  sea  by  an  intermittent  froth 
of  white  breakers.  They  made,  however,  no  sound  to 
disturb  the  absolute  silence  through  which  we  cut. 
Then,  gradually,  details  of  a  picture  detached  themselves 
from  a  gray  background,  becoming  by  instants  more 
luminous.  We  made  out  the  outlines  of  Morro.  We 
saw  minor  lights,  those  of  the  barracks  on  the  sloping 
shore  to  left  of  it,  and  those,  more  numerous,  of  the  city 
itself,  across  the  channel,  at  the  right.  Faint  color 
crept  into  the  sky  ;   it  deepened  to  brilliant  red,  against 


2  .%  H/::,:;  ;.j;    :arz^^ 

which  the  lighthouse  tower  of  the  Castle  was  a  black 
silhouette,  bearing  aloft  a  golden  disk,  that  faded  and 
went  out.  The  sun  had  risen,  and  before  us  lay  a  city 
such  in  aspect  as  I  had  not  supposed  ever  existed  off 
the  back  curtain  of  a  stage  set  for  light  opera.  It  lay 
along  a  shore  that  seemed  to  curve  in  a  bow  of  gracious 
welcome.  Its  houses  glistened  with  opalescent  tints. 
We  passed  through  the  channel,  close  under  Morro 
(seated  like  a  gray  and  weary  veteran  upon  black  rocks 
the  sea  has  undermined),  and  beside  Cabanas,  with 
w^alls  (long,  low,  irregular,  upon  a  hill)  painted  rose  color 
in  the  morning  light.  Over  all  lay  the  most  dehcate, 
shifting,  blue-gray  mist,  which  made  what  our  eyes  be- 
held seem  the  more  unreal.  I  felt  that  we  had  arrived 
in  an  enchanted  land  ;  whatever  disillusionment  I  have 
suffered  since  has  not  uprooted,  nor  ever  can,  the  love 
for  Havana  born  in  me  that  morning,  at  first  sight. 
Three  times  in  utter  disgust  I  have  bidden  her  '^fare- 
well forever.^'  Each  time,  before  I^d  lost  her  well  astern, 
I  realized  that  I  should  return.  Arrived  in  the  North, 
the  bustle  of  busier  streets  than  hers  annoyed  me ; 
brick  and  brownstone  houses  oppressed  me  with  their 
gloom.  I  missed  her  sky  from  above  me,  —  all  others 
look  faded  in  comparison,  for  none  were  ever  so  blinding 
at  noonday,  so  gaudy  at  sunset,  so  deep,  so  tender,  so 
marvelously  blue  at  night.  The  very  airs  that  blow 
through  her  avenues  penetrate  the  marrow  with  her 
charm,  and  the  palm  trees  of  her  suburbs,  with  feathery 
tops  that  rustle  in  the  wind,  have  haunted  my  dreams 
when  I  have  sought  to  return  to  the  land  where  I  was 
born,  until  longing  for  the  light,  the  color,  the  warmth 
of  Havana,  was  a  pain  not  longer  to  be  endured.  Three 
times  have  I  come  back,  like  a  tippler  to  his  drink,  be- 
cause I  love  her  and  I  cannot  keep  away. 


HAVANA —  THE  CITY  ITSELF  3 

Havana  was  the  last  of  seven  cities  founded  in  Cuba 
by  the  Adelantado  Don  Diego  Velazquez,  conqueror 
and  first  governor  of  the  country.  It  was  estabhshed 
first  on  July  25,  1515,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Guines 
or  Mayabeque  River,  on  the  south  shore  of  Cuba, 
almost  directly  across  the  island  from  the  city's  present 
site.  That  date  is  St.  Christopher's  day,  and  to  honor 
him,  and  also,  undoubtedly,  Columbus,  the  place  was 
called  St.  Christopher  of  Havana,  Havana  being  the 
Indian  name  for  approximately  that  part  of  Cuba  which 
has  since  become  the  Province  of  Habana.  Oddly 
enough,  the  spelling  (with  v)  which  is  usual  in  English 
seems  to  have  been  the  original,  the  present  Spanish 
version  (with  6)  being,  I  judge,  a  corruption  occasioned 
by  local  mispronunciation  of  v  and  its  consequent  con- 
fusion with  6.  The  25th  of  July  is  not,  however,  cele- 
brated as  the  city's  natal  day.  The  Catholic  calendar 
ascribes  that  date  to  two  saints,  —  to  St.  Christopher 
and  to  the  great  St.  James,  patron  of  Spain,  and  also 
of  Cuba.  To  avoid  conflict  with  festivities  in  honor  of 
Santiago,  His  Holiness,  long  ago,  gave  Havana  special 
permission  to  make  merry  in  St.  Christopher's  name  on 
November  16,  because  of  her  beginning,  four  centuries 
ago,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  south  coast  port  of 
Batabano. 

It  is,  on  first  consideration,  incredible  to  those  who 
know  Cuba  that  reasoning  men  should  have  selected 
that  location  for  a  town.  Batabano  is  considered  the 
best  port  in  its  neighborhood,  but  not  a  particularly  good 
one.  The  harbor  is  shallow,  not  fully  protected,  and 
the  coast  is  unattractive,  low,  and  hot.  Explanation 
lies  in  the  fact  that  at  the  time  Havana  was  founded  all 
explorations  made  and  making  were  to  the  south  of 
Cuba,   along  the  north  shore  of  the  South  American 


4  CUBA 

mainland,  where  the  Spanish  were  struggUng  fiercely 
for  a  foothold  on  the  Pearl  Coast,  and  on  the  Isthmus, 
at  Darien.  What  traffic  there  was  in  these  as  yet  un- 
frequented seas  coasted  the  south  shore  of  Cuba  from 
Santo  Domingo,  center  of  Spanish  colonization,  to 
Uraba,  first,  and  finally  to  Peru  and  to  Mexico.^ 
Of  the  continent  of  North  America,  on  the  other  hand, 
nothing  was  known  save  that  an  Englishman  and  a 
Frenchman  had  found  land  in  distant  latitudes.  Spain 
and  her  subjects  were  interested  to  forestall  solely  the 
King  of  Portugal,  with  whom  only  they  expected  to 
share  the  New  World,  and  his  exploring  expeditions 
sailed  south. 

Havana's  situation  on  the  south  shore  of  the  island 
was,  however,  insufferable,  despite  its  commercial  ad- 
vantages. The  people  were  plagued  with  mosquitoes ; 
newborn  babies  died,  books  tell,  of  the  bites  of  those 
pestiferous  insects.  The  settlement  moved,  therefore, 
across  the  island,  to  a  location  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Almen  dares  River,  which  comes  into  the  sea  at  the  far 
edge  of  the  present  suburb  of  Vedado.  Here,  unfortu- 
nately, it  was  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  pirates,  who 
were  a  reality  upon  the  Spanish  Main  in  those  days. 
In  1519,  on  this  account,  it  moved  again,  to  a  site 
easier  of  defense,  this  time  settling  down  to  stay  in  its 
present  place  on  the  west  shore  of  the  bay  that  was 
originally  called  Carenas,  by  Sebastian  de  Campo,  who 
discovered  it  in  1508,  when,  on  the  first  voyage  of  cir- 
cumnavigation made  about  Cuba,  he  entered  to  careen 
his  ships.     The  name  he  gave  it  has  been  forgotten  in 

1  Cortes  put  into  Havana  on  his  way  to  Tenochtitlan  when 
Havana  was  still  on  the  south  coast  of  Cuba ;  he  did  not,  as  Prescott, 
for  instance,  sujiposes,  sail  clear  around  the  west  end  of  the  island  to 
the  present  port. 


Photogravh  l)y  American  Photo  company 

A  Cuban  Kitchen 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Charcoal  Burners 

A  pile  of  wood  ready  for  the  conflagration 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY    ITSELF  5 

its  present  title  of  Havana  Harbor.  Entrance  is  by 
way  of  a  very  narrow  channel  which  seemed  easy  to  close 
against  unwelcome  visitors.  The  bay  then  swept  in 
between  Punta  and  La  Fuerza  much  further  than  it 
does  now,  so  that  the  nascent  city  huddled  really 
upon  a  peninsula  projecting  into  the  harbor.  To  the 
landward  it  was  protected,  I  gather  from  reading,  by 
a  thick  growth  of  manigua  (almost  impenetrable  bush) 
through  which  its  citizens  took  good  pains  to  make  no 
trails  for  marauders'  guidance ;  despite  this  precaution 
it  was  visited  more  than  once  by  buccaneers  who  an- 
chored in  San  Lazaro  Inlet,  an  insignificant  arm  of 
sea,  now  well  within  the  city  limits  and  destined  soon 
to  disappear,  leaving  only  a  curve  in  the  modern  sea- 
wall drive  to  indicate  its  former  whereabouts. 

I  can,  rightly  or  wrongly,  imagine  a  fat  caravel  an- 
chored where  the  house  I  live  in  stands  (on  made  land) 
in  the  downtown  district  to-day,  and  leaning  upon  the 
low  protecting  wall  along  our  front  azotea  (fiat  roof), 
as  upon  that  caraveFs  gunwale,  I  can  overlook  with 
my  mind's  eye  a  very  different  scene  from  that  the 
physical  eye  beholds. 

No  tall  buildings,  packed  together  in  city  blocks, 
obstruct  imagination's  view ;  they  have  scattered  and 
shrunk  !  Morro  is  gone  from  its  headland  behind  me, 
—  Cabafias  is  gone  from  its  hill !  There,  to  the  left, 
just  past  the  angled  wall  of  Fuerza,  the  fort  where  the 
governor  lives,  upstairs,  I  see  the  top  of  a  tall  ceiha 
tree.  Opposite  it,  across  the  Plaza  de  Armas,  is,  not 
the  Palace  (modern  and  ordinary  residence  of  captains- 
general,  American  governors,  and  Cuban  presidents), 
but  the  old  adobe  parish  church,  thatched  with  palm 
leaves.  Beyond  it  and  above  it,  on  Calle  Real  (Mu- 
ralla  or  Ricla  Street),  on  Redes  (now  Inquisidor),  on 


6  CUBA 

Sumidero  (O'Reilly),  on  Basurero  (Teniente  Rey),  the 
houses  of  the  earliest  Havana,  built  of  cedar  and  roofed 
with  thatch,  stand  in  rows.  Elsewhere,  they  observe 
no  order.  They  are  fenced  about,  front,  sides,  and  back, 
with  double  walls  of  prickly  cactus.  There  are  fruit 
trees  in  these  enclosures.  The  furniture  within  the 
houses  consists  of  benches,  and  chairs  of  cedar  and 
mahogany,  without  backs,  the  bottoms  being  of  can- 
vas or  hide,  of  which  materials,  too,  are  the  beds  (ham- 
mocks) of  the  poorer  citizens.  Richer  residents  ship 
black  and  red  precious  woods  which  abound  here  to 
Castile,  whence  the  logs  return  converted  into  handsome 
'imperial  couches. '^  Cooking  utensils  are  usually  of 
iron,  although  the  native  Indians  make  earthen  pots 
which  they  prefer  in  preparation  of  their  dishes.  The 
people  eat  stews  of  fresh  or  salt  meats,  flavored  with 
peppers,  and  corn  and  cazabi  bread,  which  hunger 
makes  palatable.  Tableware  is  of  Sevillan  crockery, 
with  platters  of  wood.  There  are  pretty  cups  of  a 
wood  called  guayacaUy  deemed  to  possess  prodigious 
medicinal  qualities  because  of  the  material  from  which 
they  are  fashioned  In  every  parlor  is  a  sacred  picture, 
before  which  lights  are  burned  at  nightfall  when  the 
customary  prayers  are  said.  For  illumination  the  poor 
use  tallow  candles;  the  rich,  brass  lamps  from  Seville 
fed  with  olive  oil.  After  dark  no  one  ventures  out 
unless  compelled  to  do  so,  and  then  he  goes  with  a 
goodly  company,  armed,  carrying  lanterns.  Wild  dogs 
and  runaway  negro  slaves  enter  the  town,  with  darkness, 
to  fight  each  other  through  its  garbage  for  food  ! 

My  friend,  Hernando  de  Paula,  servant  of  the  gov- 
ernor, D.  Juan  Maldonado,  leans  with  me  over  the 
rail,  pointing  out  details  of  interest.  ''You  won't  find 
here,''  he  warns  me,  ''those  birds  with  gold  and  silver 


HAVANA  — THE    CITY    ITSELF  7 

beaks  and  enameled  plumage  of  which  they  told  us 
before  we  left  Castile,  nor  do  I  see  any  prospects  of  rich 
mines.  But  this  land  is  lovely  ;  its  fields  are  green  as 
spring  the  year  around.  There  is  good  and  abundant 
water.  Herds  multiply  marvelously.  If  sugar  and 
tobacco  projects  prosper,  traffic  will  increase  until  this 
city  becomes  the  richest  and  most  important  .  .  .^' 
A  trolley  car  thundering  up  Chacon  Street  shatters 
my  re  very.  T  open  my  eyes  to  fact,  not  fancy,  and 
behold  his  prophecy  come  true.  The  caramel-colored 
walls  of  the  Supreme  Court  building  are  between  me  and 
the  Plaza,  but  I  know  that  La  Fuerza  is  dwarfed  beside 
the  Senate  building  (and  only  the  commanding  general 
of  the  Rural  Guard  resides  upstairs).  The  Templete 
is  back,  with  its  stone  monument  where  the  historic 
ceiba  tree  used  to  stand.  The  Palace  has  shouldered 
the  parish  church  into  ancient  history.  From  all  this, 
the  wholesale  and  office  district  of  the  modern  capital, 
arises  a  very  tumult  of  congested  traffic,  increased  and 
increasing,  because,  indeed,  Amigo  Hernando,  projects 
in  sugar  and  tobacco  have  prospered  mightily  !  ^ 

Now  from  the  bay  shore  (from  the  Maestranza  Build- 
ing on  the  north  to  the  Arsenal  on  the  south)  many 
narrow  streets  (the  same  Hernando  knew  and  still 
others  parallel  to  them)  lead  west  by  a  little  south  to 
those  open  and  parked  places,  between  Monserrate 
and   Zulueta,    where   stood   formerly   the   city   walls. 

1  In  the  foregoing  description  of  ancient  Havana  I  have  taken 
liberties  with  an  account  which  appears  in  Maria  de  la  Torre's  hand- 
book entitled  "What  We  Were  and  What  We  Are."  The  article 
from  which  I  have  lifted  purports  to  be  notes  (Mss.,  fifth  copy,  dated 
1598)  made  by  Hernando  de  Paula,  servant  of  the  governor,  Juan 
Maldonado,  continued  by  Alonso  Inigo  de  Cordoba.  The  Mss. 
once  belonged  to  Diego  de  Oquendo,  and  was  printed  with  some 
modernization  of  the  language  by  Jose  Joaquin  Garcia  in  1846. 


8  CUBA 

Originally  all  the  neighborhood  west  and  south  of  these 
walls,  now  covered  solidly  with  the  houses  of  newer  parts 
of  the  city  itself,  was  wild  country,  overgrown,  as  I  have 
said,  with  ''bush''  through  which,  at  first,  there  were 
not  even  any  trails.  Vedadoj  the  name  of  Havana's 
handsomest  modern  suburb,  means  ''Forbidden"; 
there  was  a  time  when  it  was  prohibited  to  pass  through 
the  tangled  woods  there  lest  in  so  doing  paths  be  made 
by  which  pirates  anchored  offshore  might  feel  encour- 
aged to  approach  the  city  and  attack.  Gradually, 
however,  farms  were  cultivated  all  about  the  town. 
Then  the  suburbs  of  Jesus  del  Monte  and  Cerro,  for 
instance,  were  not  parts  of  Havana,  but  separate  vil- 
lages to  which  roads  that  have  since  become  Jesus  del 
Monte  and  Cerro  avenues  (Calzadas)  lead  out.  The 
farms  changed,  as  the  city  grew,  into  suburban  villas 
and  chalets  of  the  rich  upon  which  humbler  homes 
ventured,  in  time,  to  crowd  uncomfortably.  Now  the 
grounds  of  Count  Villanueva,  for  instance,  prized  as 
a  rural  estate,  are  a  city  park  and  the  site  of  a  cen- 
trally located  railway  station;  elsewhere  electric  cars 
pass  along  paved  streets  which  have  developed  from 
lanes  and  sylvan  byways.  "The  old  city,''  as  they  call 
that  part  of  it  east  of  the  line  of  the  walls,  between 
their  relics  and  the  bay,  is  in  area  but  a  small  part  of 
the  greater  Havana. 

It  has  become  the  business  district  of  the  modern 
city,  yet  not  exclusively  so.  Streets  here  are  exceed- 
ingly narrow,  as  the  law  required  when  they  were  laid 
out  that  they  should  be,  for  it  was  supposed  that  they 
would  be  cooler  if  the  houses  on  one  side  shaded  the 
fagades  of  those  on  the  other.  It  did  not  occur  to 
those  who  planned  them,  however,  to  lay  Havana's 
avenues  with  any  intelligent  reference  to  prevailing 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY   ITSELF  9 

winds.  These  stree^swere  first  paved  with  cobble- 
stones ;  it  is  only  within  thelast  ten  years  that  cement, 
wooden  blocks,  and,  in  sticky  patches,  a  little  asphalt, 
have  replaced  the  round  rocks  on  a  few  of  the  principal 
thoroughfares.  Houses  stand  close  along  these  streets, 
without  the  intervention  of  sidewalks  worthy  the 
name,  except  on  a  few  modernized  avenues,  notably 
Obispo  and  O'Reilly.  In  the  beginning  no  sidewalks 
were  planned.  Persons  of  importance  rode :  mere 
pedestrians  merited  no  consideration.  All  that  pro- 
tected the  houses  from  traffic  passing  in  the  streets, 
then,  was  a  curb  intended  to  keep  wheels  from  scraping 
on  the  buildings ;  these  curbs  have,  wherever  possible, 
been  converted  into  sidewalks.  In  many  places, 
however,  they  render  only  their  original  service.  When 
the  pavement,  a  foot  or  two  wide  at  its  best,  on  side 
avenues,  dwindles  to  an  inch  or  two  instead,  a  person 
walking  takes  to  the  street,  precisely  as  it  was  intended 
he  should  do,  and  continues  on  his  way  as  best  he  can, 
quite  at  the  mercy  of  his  betters,  passing  with  right-of- 
way  in  hired  ''coaches''  and  private  vehicles  of  all 
sorts  whose  drivers  hiss  and  halloo  at  him  to  step  lively, 
unmindful  how  the  wheels  slipping  into  puddles  be- 
tween cobbles  may  spatter  him  with  water  and  mud, 
unless,  foreseeing  the  catastrophe,  he  dodge  uninvited 
into  an  open  door  and  so  escape  the  flying  mire. 

These  houses  are  generally  two  stories  in  height ;  in^ 
some  this  is  equivalent  to  three,  for  there  is  a  low-ceiled 
^'  between  floors,"  intended  originally,  I  think,  for  the 
accommodation  of  menials.  The  National  Bank  build^ 
ing  scrapes  the  sky  with  five  stories.  There  are  one- 
story  buildings  beside  it  with  sloping  roofs  of  curled 
red  tile.  These  houses  are  built  of  stone,  or  as  durable 
peculiar  old  brick,  or  a  composition  known  as  mam- 


10  CUBA 

posteria;  the  outside  of  all  alike,  however,  is  smoothly- 
plastered  and  gayly  colored :  white,  cream,  buff,  pink, 
blue,  yellow,  green,  lavender,  indigo,  in  single  tones  and 
in  startling  combinations  which  astonish  the  eye  and, 
combined  with  a  tangled  sky  line,  constitute  no  small 
proportion  of  Havana's  attraction  for  a  stranger  here. 

The  street  fronts  of  the  buildings  are  all  quite  plain. 
There  are  large  rectangular  windows,  barred,  and 
immense  and  sometimes  ornate  doorways,  through 
which,  if  they  stand  open,  one  sees  patios  (courtyards) 
beyond. 

Erected  for  residences,  some  buildings  even  in  the 
heart  of  ^Hhe  old  city''  have  remained  so;  business 
has,  however,  invaded  most  of  them  here,  so  that  in 
the  handsome  palace  of  the  Count  of  San  Fernando  an 
American  company  stores  farm  wagons.  On  another 
corner  of  Cathedral  Square  a  senator  of  the  republic 
lives  above  a  corner  cafe  where  omnibus  drivers  spend 
their  small  leisure  between  trips.  Residences  of  for- 
eign diplomats  stand  side  by  side  with  steam  laundries. 
The  laughter  of  children  at  play  on  the  roof  of  the  ad- 
joining house  enlivens  the  quiet  of  the  American  con- 
sul's private  office.  There  are  tenements  on  the  tops 
of  warehouses.  Factories,  schools,  government  de- 
partments, and  convents  may  be  neighbors  in  the  same 
square.  The  most  notorious  street  in  town  is  within  a 
block  or  so  of  the  most  fashionable  church  and  of  the 
American  Legation,  opposite  it.  In  short,  ^Hhe  old 
city"  is  a  grab  bag, —  its  contents  unsorted.  West  of 
the  Prado,  the  wider  streets  there,  and  the  suburbs 
beyond  them,  are  now  more  the  residential  districts 
than  any  below  the  line  of  the  former  walls,  where 
business  predominates,  yet  does  not  wholly  control. 

'Havana  grew  westward  from  her  water  front,  and 


j'liDioijnipii  ha  A  III,  rlcan  Photo  Company 

The  Presidential  Palace,  Havana 


PhoinQT'ivh  by  American  Photo  Company 

"The  Green  Room"  of  the  Presidential  Palace 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY    ITSELF 

close  to  it,  naturally,  are  the  oldest  and  the  most  inter- 
esting parts  of  town.!  The  very  center  of  the  original 
settlement  was  the  Plaza  de  Armas,  the  little  park  above 
Caballeria,  the  oldest  wharf.  Recent  cyclones  have 
stripped  its  trees ;  they  used  to  cast  a  grateful  shade, 
but  now  the  sun  beats  through  their  lopped,  bare 
branches  so  that  at  noon  their  shadows  hardly  wrap 
their  boles  around.  There  are  foliage  plants,  and  some 
flowers  in  little  beds,  I  believe,  but,  to  tell  the  truth, 
when  I  must  cross  the  Plaza  de  Armas  I  lay  me  a  clear 
course  from  one  corner  to  the  other,  shut  my  eyes  and 
^'go  it  blind,''  for  I  cannot  endure  the  glare  from  its 
paths,  which  penetrates  the  eyes  like  a  white-hot  knife. 
Walking  so,  —  or  swimming,  rather,  buoyed  along  on 
heat  waves  that  surge  through  here  at  noonday  like 
high  tide  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  —  I  have  often  made 
myself  oblivious  to  the  discomfort  of  the  moment  by 
reconstructing  scenes  and  events  which  have  transpired 
here. 

I  am  fond  of  abolishing  the  Palace,  that  smug  yellow 
square  which  faces  upon  the  Plaza  from  its  west  side. 
It  has  been  the  Mecca  ever  since  it  came  into  existence, 
in  1834,  and  through  all  regimes,  of  the  pest  of  the 
country,  —  office  seekers  in  hordes  (politicians,  ^^  pa- 
triots,'' false  friends  and  flattering  favorites,  with  now 
and  then  an  honest  man  temporizing  in  bad  company) . 
Its  marble  steps  are  bent  to  the  tread  of  their  per- 
sistent feet.  I  fancy  its  walls  have  sheltered  from  the 
too  curious  stare  of  outsiders  more  than  one  sore 
heart,  not  wholly  hidden  behind  its  red  and  blue  plush 
curtains,  nor,  even  further,  safe  within  the  privacy  of 
its  ''green  room."  This  building  shook  as  the  Maine 
blew  up,  and  when  he  learned  the  details  of  that  explo- 
sion they  say  the  governor-general  in  his  office  upstairs 


12  CUBA 

smote  his  desk  with  his  clenched  fist,  crying :  ^^This  is 
the  saddest  day  Spain  ever  saw!''  Here  his  succes- 
sors, American  mihtary  governors,  ruled  with  a  high 
hand,  and  once,  so  gossip  goes,  the  wife  of  an  American 
minister  did  a  pas  seul  on  the  stair  landing,  which  may 
or  may  not  have  helped  to  determine  her  husband's 
following  transfer  to  a  lesser  post.  From  here  Presi- 
dent Palma,  betrayed  and  broken,  departed,  leaving 
his  country  in  the  hands  of  William  Howard  Taft.  I 
am  fond,  I  say,  of  abolishing  the  whole  edifice  and  all 
its  sordid  history.  I  prefer  to  fancy  the  old  parish 
church  that  preceded  it,  as  it  was,  say,  on  a  festival 
day  in  1667,  when  Dona  Maria  de  Cepero,  the  gover- 
nor's daughter  and  exalted  patroness  of  the  occasion, 
was  killed  by  a  ball  from  an  arquebus  saluting  in  the 
course  of  the  festivities.  She  was  buried  under  the 
floor  where  she  fell,  for  it  was  long  before  the  time  when 
the  good  Bishop  Estrada  protested  against  the  use  of 
the  churches  as  charnel  vaults.  When  the  old  church 
was  demolished,  a  relative  of  the  lady  preserved  the 
stone  commemorative  of  her  accidental  death ;  he  set 
it  in  the  wall  of  the  nearest  building  convenient,  and 
there,  on  Obispo  near  the  corner  of  Oficios,  the  curious 
may  find  it  yet,  for  neither  time  nor  repeated  coats  of 
whitewash  have  quite  obliterated  it  or  its  simple  Latin 
inscription. 

Across  the  Plaza  from  the  Palace  is  the  Templete, 
that  odd,  chapel-like  building  marking  the  site  where, 
when  Havana  moved  in  1519,  the  first  town  council  was 
held  and  the  first  mass  sung.  The  Templete  was 
erected  in  1828  and  contains  only  three  oil  paintings, 
the  work  of  the  artist  Escobar.  In  one  he  has  depicted 
the  installation  of  the  first  municipal  council  in  Cuba, 
at  Santiago  de  Cuba,  Don  Diego  Velazquez  presiding. 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY    ITSELF  13 

In  the  second  he  portrays  the  celebration  of  the  first 
mass  in  Havana,  on  this  spot,  and  this  is  the  scene  I 
prefer  to  imagine  I  witness,  as,  before  a  temporary- 
altar  erected  in  the  shade  of  a  robust  ceiba  tree,  the 
priest  officiates.  About  him  gathers  in  attendance  the 
little  company  of  earliest  settlers  here.  Standing 
behind  them,  Indians  watch  curiously  the  mysterious 
ceremony.  The  third  picture  represents  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Templete  itself ;  among  the  figures 
on  the  canvas  are  excellent  likenesses  of  Governor 
Vives,  his  chief  officers,  and  many  a  prominent 
resident  and  fair  belle  of  the  artistes  personal 
acquaintance.  These  are  the  ladies  and  the  beaux 
who  used  to  foregather  in  the  Plaza  ^4n  the  days 
of  Spain''  when  the  military  band  played  ^^retreat/' 
The  bellas  came,  then,  in  volantas  (two-wheeled  Cuban 
carriages)  and  quaint  chaises ;  they  were  gowned  in 
stiff  silks,  they  wore  mantillas,  and  they  coquetted 
with  perfumed  fans.  They  had  high  combs  and  flowers 
in  their  sleek  black  hair,  and  to  them,  pressing  close 
against  their  conveyances,  as  these  paused  in  the  park, 
while  music  sounded  and  the  full  moon  shone  as  it 
shines  only  in  a  southern  sky  like  this,  exquisite  gentle- 
men in  very  tight  trousers  and  remarkable  tall  hats 
paid  extravagant  court,  as  was  expected  of  them.  Or, 
again,  late  in  the  afternoons,  when  the  privileges  of 
evening  were  not  permitted  to  these  gallants,  they 
congregated  before  ^^Mr.  Tavern's  coffee  house," 
which  was,  I  think,  where  the  Ambos  Mundos  is  to-day, 
and  perforce  contented  themselves  to  watch  the  fair 
from  a  distance  as  they  drove  by  on  'Hhe  little  prome- 
nade" (so  the  phrase  goes)  along  the  then  fashionable 
route  which  lay  through  what  are  now  wholesale  streets, 
noisy  by  day  and  redolent  at  every  hour  of  raw  sugar, 


14  CUBA 

hides,  onions  in  bulk,  and  baled  tobacco  !  I  imagine, 
too,  it  was  some  one  of  the  inexperienced  ladies  on  Esco- 
bar^s  third  canvas  who,  when  an  enterprising  cafe 
along  the  line  of  the  preferred  drive  served  by  way  of 
refreshment  the  first  ice  manufactured  in  Havana, 
clapped  her  kerchief  to  her  mouth  and  shrieked  that 
she  was  burned.  The  driver  of  her  volanta  whipped 
up  the  caparisoned  mules  which  drew  it  and  departed 
down  street,  over  the  cobbles,  with  a  fearful  clatter, 
while  other  adventurous  patrons  of  the  salon,  tasting 
the  novelty,  threw  down  the  glasses  in  which  it  was 
served,  and  joined  in  the  hubbub  with  shouts  of 
alarm  ! 

-  JThe  Templete  is  open  but  once  a  year,  —  on  the 
night  of  November  15th  and  on  November  16th, 
celebrated,  as  I  have  explained,  by  special  permission 
as  the  anniversary  of  the  city^s  founding,  —  on  which 
dates  all  Havana,  much  with  the  air  of  going  to  church, 
walks  down  to  the  little  edifice,  made  gay  with  gas 
lamps  and  electric  lights,  to  gaze  dutifully  year  after 
year  upon  the  three  paintings  which  are  all  it  shelters. 
Each  and  every  street  south  of  the  Plaza  de  Armas 
is  interesting,  in  itself  as  it  is  now,  and  for  details  of  its 
previous  history.  Here,  at  Oficios  94,  lived  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese,  D.  Pedro  Agustin  Morel  de  Santa  Cruz, 
who  used  to  take  his  daily  promenade  up  Obispo,  and 
thereby  gave  that  avenue  its  name  (Bishop's  Street) ; 
it  has  since  been  rechristened  Pi  y  Margall,  for  a  Cuban 
patriot,  but  nobody  heeds  the  change.  On  the  corner 
of  Mercaderes  and  Obrapia  (Pious  Act  Street)  is  the 
house  (its  handsome  high  entrance  with  coat  of  arms 
above  it,  its  stairways,  its  corridors,  its  quiet  patio 
retaining  in  decay  the  aristocratic  bearing  of  better 
days),  income  from  which  the  owner,  D.  Martin  Calvo 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY   ITSELF  15 

de  Arrieta,  willed,  in  1679,  to  be  divided  into  dowries 
for  five  orphan  girls  yearly ;  the  city  is  executor  and 
in  this  capacity  still  launches  five  brides  per  annum  so 
dowered  by  Don  Martin.  Lamparilla  is  ''Little  Lamp 
Street  ^'  (in  commemoration  of  a  light  a  devotee  of  All 
Souls'  kept  burning  on  the  corner  of  this  and  Habana 
in  years  when  there  was  no  public  illumination) .  Here, 
too,  on  the  corner  of  Mercaderes  and  Amargura,  is 
''The  Corner  of  the  Green  Cross/'  The  cross  is  there, 
and  it  is  green ;  no  painter,  furbishing  up  the  house  it 
marks,  would  venture  to  give  it  any  other  color,  though 
why  it  should  be  green  nobody  knows.  It  was  one  of 
the  stations  when,  before  religious  processions  were 
prohibited  in  the  streets,  good  Catholics  used  to  travel 
the  Via  Crucis  along  Amargura  (Bitterness)  Street 
from  Cristo  Plaza  at  its  head  to  San  Francisco  Convent 
at  the  other  end.  In  the  house  walls  along  the  way 
one  can  distinguish  yet  where  other  stations  were. 
Damas  is  Ladies'  Street  because  of  the  number  of 
pretty  women  who  at  one  time  made  its  balconies 
attractive.  Inquisidor  was  so  called  because  a  Com- 
missary of  the  Inquisition  once  resided  in  a  house  fac- 
ing upon  it  which  now  the  Spanish  legation  owns  and 
occupies.  Refugio  (Refuge)  got  its  name  because  once 
General  Rocafort  was  caught  in  a  storm  and  found 
refuge  in  the  house  of  a  widow  named  Mendez,  who 
lived  there.  Here  and  in  other  districts  throughout 
town  not  only  the  streets  had  names,  —  Empedrado, 
because  it  was  the  first  paved  (between  the  Cathedral 
and  San  Juan  de  Dios  Square) ;  Tejadillo  (Little 
Tile)  because  a  house  upon  it  was  the  first  to  have  a 
tiled  roof ;  Blanco  (Target)  because  the  artillery  school 
practised  there  when  it  was  well  outside  the  walled 
city, — but  many  corners  and  crossings  had  their  own 


16  CUBA 

particular  titles.  The  corner  of  Havana  and  Empe- 
drado  was  called  ''The  Corner  of  the  Little  Lamp/^ 
because  in  a  tobacco  shop  there  shone  steadily  the  only 
street  light  in  the  district.  The  corner  of  Compostela 
and  Jesus  Maria  was  ''Snake  Corner ^^  because  of  the 
picture  of  a  serpent  painted  on  a  house  wall  there. 
Sol  and  Aguacate  was  "Sun  Corner''  for  a  similar  rea- 
son, and  the  fagade  decoration  there  probably  named 
the  whole  of  Sol  (Sun)  Street.  The  block  on  Amargura 
between  Compostela  and  Villegas  was  known  as  the 
"Square  of  Pious  Women''  because  two  very  religious 
ladies  lived  near,  and  because,  too,  of  the  particular 
"station  of  the  cross"  located  on  Amargura  at  this 
point.  Other  streets  are  named  for  famous  men, — 
O'Reilly,  for  instance,  for  General  Alejandro  O'Reilly 
(a  Spaniard  despite  the  cognomen),  who  entered  the 
city  by  way  of  that  avenue  when  Havana  was  delivered 
from  the  English  in  1763 ;  the  Count  of  Albemarle, 
the  British  commander  who  had  lorded  it  over  Havana 
since  he  and  Admiral  Pocock  captured  it  the  year  be- 
fore, retired  down  Obispo  Street  as  the  Spanish  marched 
in,  up  O'Reilly.  Tacon,  Chacon,  Carlos  III,  and  very 
many  others  are,  obviously,  named  for  personages 
who  have  figured  in  local  history.  The  streets  (like 
the  whole  city  and  all  the  island,  for  that  matter)  are 
disappointingly  barren  of  legends,  ghosts,  or  recollec- 
tions of  any  sort,  except,  now  and  then,  of  squalid 
crimes,  these,  usually,  of  very  recent  date.  They  de- 
pend for  their  interest  upon  details  of  their  archi- 
tecture (handsome  and  heavy  doors,  intricate  window 
grilles,  color,  unexpected  balconies),  and,  especially, 
upon  the  passing  show  of  their  daily  life. 

From  the  Plaza  de  Armas  two  principal  avenues  — 
Obispo  and  O'Reilly  —  lead  west,  connecting  with  the 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Havana  City  Mounted  Police 


/  /,  /  >,,  iph  by  American  Photo  Company 

The  Prado,  Havana 


.-  V.     r  c    ^*       ••'"'* 


HAVANA — THE    CITY    ITSELF  17 

newer  parts  of  town.  Above  the  monumental  pile  of 
the  National  Bank  building  Obispo  is  our  principal 
retail  shopping  street ;  below  the  Bank  the  tran- 
quillity of  business  done  by  wholesale  has  settled  no- 
ticeably within  even  the  last  five  years.  Remembering 
that  originally  the  shops  which  line  Obispo  stood  along 
Mercaderes  (as  that  name,  meaning  Merchants,  indi- 
cates) overflowing  then  into  Oficios  (Trades)  as  now 
they  overflow  into  O'Reilly,  it  seems  plain  to  me  that 
their  journeying  is  only  half  accomplished  ;  their  course 
is  laid  for  the  Prado,  destined  to  cease  to  be  our 
Fifth  Avenue,  only  to  become  our  Broadway  as  Broad- 
way is  between  the  Flatiron  and  Times  Square.  Then 
we  shall  recognize  Obispo  as  Wall  Street,  Central  Park 
as  our  Madison  Square,  San  Rafael  as  Twenty-Third 
Street,  and  Galiano  as  Sixth  Avenue. 

At  the  head  of  Obispo  Street,  joining.it,  in  fact,  with 
Central  Park,  is  Monserrate  Plaza,  alias  Albear  Square. 
It  contains  a  statue  of  the  Spanish  engineer,  Albear, 
who  built  the  Vento  works  that  supply  all  this  city  and 
its  suburbs  with  an  abundance  of  pure  sweet  water. 
He  was  born  in  Havana  in  1811,  was  educated  as  a 
civil  engineer  in  Madrid,  and  served  with  distinction 
in  the  Spanish  army.  He  died  in  1889,  and  Havana,  as 
the  inscription  reads,  erected  this  tribute  to  her  'illus- 
trious son.''  Originally  Havana  got  her  water  from  an 
open  ditch,  the  course  of  which  Zanja  (Ditch)  Street 
follows.  It  crossed  the  walled  city  and  entered  the 
sea  via  Chorro  (Stream)  Street,  a  blind  alley  now,  off 
Cathedral  Plaza.  Vento  is  some  nine  miles  from 
Havana.  There  a  multitude  of  springs  well  up  through 
clean  pebbly  creek  bottom;  they  are  the  outlet  of  a 
buried  river  which  finds  the  surface  here.  Albear 
built  a  reservoir  about  these  springs  ;  it  is  the  admira- 


18  CUBA 

tion  of  beholders  who  gaze  into  its  shallows  and  see  no 
source  of  supply.  They  note,  however,  a  slight  stirring 
of  the  surface,  which  maintains  its  level,  although  from 
one  corner  of  this  square  inclosure  a  great  volume  of 
water  pours  into  pipes  which  conduct  it  underground  to 
another  reservoir,  at  Palatino,  whence  it  is  distributed 
through  the  city  and  even  across  the  bay.  That  the 
supply  seems  limited,  toward  noon,  in  tall  buildings  and 
in  houses  built  on  high  land,  is  due,  I  am  told,  not  to 
any  scarcity  of  water,  but  to  inadequate  pumps  and  to 
pipes  that  are  too  small  for  the  service  required  of  them. 
This  water  is  very  hard ;  it  coats  receptacles,  especially 
those  in  which  it  is  boiled.  It  is,  however,  exceptionally 
pure.  Albear,  as  he  stands  with  feeble  fountains  striv- 
ing and  failing  to  play  at  his  feet,  bows  his  head  in 
modesty,  I  think,  at  the  thanks  a  truly  grateful  city 
bestows  upon  him  for  his  great  work.  They  say  that 
Albear  made  it  a  requirement  that  all  who  use  Vento 
water  must  give  of  it  to  drink  to  any  person  who  asks. 
I  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  myself  as  to  whether 
this  is  so,  but  certain  it  is  that  any  cafe  or  similar  estab- 
lishment will  give  a  glass  of  water  at  request,  and  usu- 
ally, if  one  prefers  it  ''cold''  as  contrasted  with  ''natu- 
ral,'' they  will  drop  in  a  bit  of  ice  as  good  measure. 

Across  Havana,  following  roughly  the  general  direc- 
tion the  old  walls  had,  but  just  beyond  their  site,  reach- 
ing from  Monte  Street  almost  due  north,  including 
Central  Park  and  the  Prado,  to  Malecon  and  the  sea, 
is  a  series  of  parks  and  promenades  which  constitute  this 
capital's  chief  recreation  ground. 

This  series  begins  with  Colon  Park,  which,  in  itself, 
comprises  two  parks.  The  smallest  of  these  is  La  India 
Park.  It  is  diminutive,  consisting  merely  of  a  plot  of 
ground   about  a  statue  of   an  Indian  girl   of   really 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY    ITSELF  19 

Grecian  loveliness,  symbolical  of  Havana.  This  statue 
was  presented  to  the  city  by  the  Count  of  Villanueva, 
after  whom  the  railway  station,  facing  it  from  Dra- 
gones  Street,  was  named.  The  count  at  one  time  owned 
all  the  land  in  this  vicinity ;  it  constituted  his  country 
place.  La  India  (the  Indian  girl)  attained  an  in- 
creased interest  for  me  the  day  a  tourist  explained  to 
me,  in  all  seriousness,  that^she  is  a  likeness  of  Christo- 
pher Columbus'  wife  !  When  I  added  that  I  supposed 
the  necklace  she  wears  is  the  same  Queen  Isabel  pawned 
to  equip  the  Discoverer's  fleet,  the  statue  acquired  an 
increased  interest  for  him  ! 

Opposite  La  India  is  Campo  Marte  (The  Field  of 
Mars),  to  me  the  handsomest  park  in  Havana,  especially 
when,  as  used  to  be  customary  in  carnival  times  before 
the  government  ''went  broke,''  it  was  illuminated  with 
gas  lamps  that  shone,  softly  brilliant,  through  shades 
colored  red,  white,  and  blue.  Campo  Marte  was  so 
named  by  Governor-General  Tacon,  who  fenced  it  in  as 
a  drill  ground  for  troops. 

From  Colon  Park  (La  India  and  Campo  Marte  con- 
sidered together)  Upper  Prado  leads  to  Central  Park, 
and  from  there  Prado  proper  extends  to  the  water  front 
drive  of  Malecon,  skirting  the  sea  from  the  Maestranza 
building  on  the  north  edge  of  ''the  old  city,"  to  San 
Lazaro  Inlet  on  its  way  to  Vedado  and  beyond. 

The  Prado  is  a  double  drive,  with  a  double  promenade 
down  the  center,  shaded  by  a  double  row  of  laurel 
trees.  When  first  we  strolled  here,  delighted  to  watch, 
especially  of  Sunday  afternoons,  the  people  who  prome- 
nade down  the  middle  and  the  other  people  who  drive 
around  the  outside,  we  trod  on  dirt,  and  under  thou- 
sands of  shuffling  feet  fine  dust  arose  to  annoy  the 
senses  and  ruin  clothes.     It  was  during  the  American 


20  CUBA 

Military  Government  of  the  island  that  cement  was 
laid  the  full  length  of  the  middle  walk,  around  central 
reservations  for  landscape  gardening  in  miniature.  In 
those  first  years,  however,  the  Prado  was  handsomer 
than  it  is  now,  despite  these  later  improvements,  for 
then  its  laurel  trees  were  monarchs  of  their  kind,  — 
widespread  and  leafy ;  the  cyclone  of  1906  leveled  all 
but  two  or  three  of  them,  and  the  rest,  even  though  some 
lived  on  after  they  were  straightened  to  place  again,  are 
thin  shadows  of  what  they  used  to  be.  Beautiful 
homes  face  upon  the  Prado,  which  is  still  the  most 
desirable  residence  avenue  within  the  city,  but  it  is 
indicative  of  the  trend  of  affairs  that,  among  its  palaces, 
boarding  houses,  tenements,  garages,  cafes,  and  other 
sometimes  very  humble  business  places  not  only  hold 
their  own,  but  multiply. 

Central  Park  is  the  present  pulsing  heart  of  Havana. 
It  is  a  large  rectangle,  paved  with  cement,  around  gar- 
den plots  where  ornamental  shrubs  and  flowering  plants 
flourish  in  the  shade  of  laurels  and  royal  poncianas 
trimmed  horizontally  above  the  heads  of  the  people,  — 
the  people  of  every  nationality,  type,  and  condition, 
who  pass  and  repass  through  that  square  ceaselessly, 
so  that  it  is  never  deserted,  neither  by  night  nor  by  day. 

In  the  middle  of  Central  Park  there  is  a  statue  of  Jos6 
Marti,  the  ''Apostor'  of  Cuban  liberties,  pointing 
significantly  down  Obispo  Street  to  the  wholesale  dis- 
trict where  foreigners  in  shops  and  offices  hold  control 
over  trade  and  commerce  and  agriculture  in  this,  his 
and  his  followers'  native  land.  According  to  Saavedra, 
the  sculptor  who  designed  the  monument,  Marti  is 
addressing  the  Cuban  people  ^^just  after  he  has  once 
more  given  to  the  air  the  single-starred  banner  of  free- 
dom furled  at  Zanjon.     Inspired  by  him  the  Cubans 


Fhotocfraph  by  American  Photo  Compa7iy 

Central  Park  —  The  Heart  of  Havana 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

La  India — Looking  North  along  Upper  Prado 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 


HAVANA  —  THE    CITY    ITSELF  21 

in  1895  threw  themselves  into  the  second  war  of  inde- 
pendence. In  high  rehef  around  the  pedestal  I  have/' 
the  author  explained  to  me,  '^symbolized  their  action. 
There  are  sculptured  nineteen  figures  which  show  this 
nation  moving  forward,  —  men,  young  and  old,  women 
and  children,  all  eager,  all  straining  toward  the  goal 
ahead,  which  is  Independence.  Overshadowing  them 
with  her  great  white  wings  is  Victory,  bearing  the 
palm  of  peace.''  They  have  not,  however,  be  it  well 
noted,  overtaken  Victory,  nor  yet  laid  hand  on  the 
palm  branch  she  carries  far  aloft.  This  is  why,  I 
think,  that  Marti  continues  to  point  so  earnestly  down 
Obispo  Street  where,  in  the  less  noisy  but  not  less 
strenuous  fields  of  business,  Cubans  must  win  against 
invaders  or  lose  all  and  more  than  they  have  ever 
obtained  in  battle  fields  by  force  of  arms. 

It  seems  to  me  that  surely  I  know  Central  Park  in 
all  its  moods  and  all  its  humors.  Many  and  many 
a  morning  I  have  crossed  it  early,  when  the  caretakers 
were  washing  its  pavements  with  splashing  streams 
from  a  hose.  Then  from  the  soil,  above  which  roses 
nodded,  heavy  with  sprinkling,  there  exhaled  a  fra- 
grance to  remind  me,  hopefully,  of  open  country  and 
freedom  there.  I've  seen  it  at  noonday,  when  its  cement 
reflects  the  sunlight  in  blinding  glare,  and  one,  obliged 
to  cross  it,  tacks  from  spot  to  spot  of  the  scarce  shade 
its  cropped  trees  now  cast.  I've  seen  it  late  in  the 
afternoon  and  in  the  early  evening  when  the  sun,  set- 
ting, pours  down  Neptuno  Street  into  its  open  space 
all  the  varying,  now  flaming,  now  failing,  tints  of  an 
ending  day,  which  illumine  the  fagades  of  all  the  build- 
ings facing  upon  it,  removing  from  them  the  sordid- 
ness  of  what  they  are,  till  one  might  imagine  them 
pleasant  fairy  palaces  of  innocent  gingerbread  delights. 


22  CUBA 

Then  the  park  lamps  are  lighted,  and  they  remind  me 
of  very  yellow  diamonds  set  in  palest  gold.  Taxicab 
chauffeurs  turn  on  their  headlights.  Coachmen  waiting 
along  the  curb  dismount  grudgingly,  and  touch  up 
their  candles  with  tips  of  flame.  From  the  staffs  of 
the  National,  and  Albisu,  and  Polyteama  theaters, 
waving  pennants  proclaim  '^  functions  ^^  about  to  begin. 
The  top  story  of  Hotel  Plaza,  sidling  up  to  the  Park  at 
one  corner,  is  ablaze  with  light.  Similarly,  the  lower 
floor  of  the  Inglaterra  shines.  In  all  the  cafes  here- 
abouts there  is  animation.  A  band  arrives,  and  its 
members  take  their  places  upon  the  raised  platform 
about  the  statue  of  Marti.  As  they  play  the  crowd 
already  gathered  in  the  Park  grows  more  and  more 
compact.  All  the  green  chairs  are  occupied,  and  many 
persons,  finding  or  desiring  no  seats,  walk,  circling  slowly 
round  and  round.  have  noticed,  through  the  years, 
how  the  quality  of  this  ^^  concert  night '^  crowd  in 
Central  Park  changes.  Formerly,  on  the  Inglaterra 
side,  seated  in  the  chairs  there,  one  found  ''the  good 
people,''  especially  of  the  American  colony.  After 
the  band  had  played  ''Bayameses''  and  then  ''Amer- 
ica'' they,  already  standing,  turned  with  one  accord 
to  the  Telegrafo,  crowded  about  its  little  marble-topped 
tables  and  ordered  ice  cream,  —  and  other  things  not 
as  cold.  Now  one  sees,  if  any,  only  the  stragglers  in 
the  old  places.  "The  good  people"  have  deserted  to 
the  Miramar.  The  general  color  tone  of  the  Central 
Park  crowds  is  darker  than  it  used  to  be  ;  I  have  some- 
times wondered  if,  eventually,  there  will  not  be  a  divi- 
sion among  pleasure  seekers  in  Havana  as  there  is  in 
Mexico,  where,  on  Sundays,  for  instance,  frock  coats 
parade  (or  did  when  I  was  there)  in  the  Alameda,  while 
zarapes  take  the  air  in  the  Zocalo.     Our  discrimination 


HAVANA— THE    CITY    ITSELF  23 

will  not,  however,  be  based  on  the  cut  of  clothes,  but 
rather  on  the  unalterable  hue  of  skin  beneath  them. 
When  the  band  players  pack  up  their  instruments 
and  depart,  ladies  disappear  from  the  Park  with  them. 
Men,  however,  stay  on,  sitting  about  in  little  groups, 
some  of  which  are  rather  well  organized  tertulias,  — 
parties  of  friends  who  keep  an  unspoken  engagement 
to  meet  there  often  to  idiscuss  politics,  finance,  and  every 
other  phase  of  life  as  they  live  it.  Before  the  patrolling 
police  have  ^^  moved  on,^'  toward  dawn,  the  lingerers 
who  outstay  even  these  gossipers,  the  acrid  smell  of 
kindling  fires,  and  a  general  reawakening  in  all  the 
establishments  about  the  square,  announce  another 
day.  Milkmen,  riding  in  from  outlying  farms,  pewter 
pots  a-j angle  in  their  panniers,  pass,  singing  in  high, 
strained  key  in  time  to  the  patter  of  their  horses^  hurry- 
ing feet.  When  the  Tres  Hermanos  puts  out  its  lights 
(it  never  closes  its  doors),  that  other  day  is  well  begun. 
Years  come,  years  go,  but  I  have  not  discovered  that 
their  seasons  vary  this  routine  particularly.  In  summer 
the  poncianas  spread  a  canopy  of  flame,  and  driving 
rains,  beating  little  waves  of  water  across  the  mirror- 
like surface  of  the  Parkas  cement,  carry  red  petals 
from  under  the  trees,  where  they  have  dripped  like 
blood.  In  the  spring  there  are  other  posies  than  those 
which  occupy  the  garden  plots  in  the  fall,  and  when  one 
meets  in  Central  Park  a  strange  folk,  wearing  Panama 
hats  and  carrying  guidebooks,  who  halt  one  with  accus- 
ing index  finger  and  the  challenge:  ^^Do  you  speak 
English?'^  demanding,  as  countersign,  directions  how 
to  get  to  Morro  Castle  and  to  Obispo  Street,  then  one 
knows  that  it  is  the  dead  of  winter  (though  the  Park 
bloom  all  about  one  as  before)  and  that  we  are  besieged, 
invaded,  by  aliens  who  desecrate  our  sacredest  places, 


24  CUBA 

and,  viewing  them,  commune  together  :  ^^  Huh  !  We  can 
beat  it  on  Main  Street!'^  ^^I  can't  say  I  think  so 
much  of  that  !^'  ^^  Now  ain't  this  interestin'  ? ''  ^^  How 
much  will  it  cost  to  get  there?''  ''  How  long  will  it 
take  to  get  back ?"  ''We've  seen  enough  of  this  man's 
town."  ''You'll  have  to  hurry  if  you're  going  to 
make  the  boat." 


CHAPTER     II 

THE    tourist's    HAVANA 

The  "  Florida  Duck"  is  a  festive  bird, — 

The  famous  goose  of  whom  ye've  heard 

That  laid  gold  eggs  was  a  piker  jay 

Compared  to  the  subject  of  this  here  "  lay.'*  .  .  . 

—  From  "  El  Pato  de  la  Florida." 

Like  the  little  boy  who  couldn't  see  the  forest  for  the 
trees,  the  average  tourist  fails,  I  think,  to  see  Havana 
because  of  the  points  of  interest  here  he  manages  to 
include  in  his  hurried  itinerary,  —  fortifications  and 
churches  especially,  at  which  he  stares  without  any 
understanding. 

He  ranks  chief  in  his  estimation  Morro,  Castle  of  the 
Three  Kings,  that  gray  fortress  on  the  headland  {morro 
means  promontory ,  which  gives  this  and  many  other  forts 
similarly  situated  their  common  name)  at  the  harbor's 
mouth.  It  is  irregular  in  shape,  built  (1589-1597)  in 
part  on  solid  rock  and  in  part  hewn  out  of  rock,  so  that 
it  has  the  character  of  a  natural  formation  shaped  and 
modified  by  man.  It  rises  from  100  to  120  feet  above 
sea  level ;  even  its  most  prominent  feature  —  the  light- 
house tower  erected  in  1844  by  Governor-General 
O'Donnell,  whose  name  it  bears,  high  up  in  immense 
letters  —  is  dwarfed  now  by  the  spiderwork  of  an 
aspiring  and  useless  wireless  station  at  its  rear. 

The  ascent  to  Morro  is  by  an  inclined  road,  which  is 
shaded  with  laurels  and  royal  poncianas,  and  hedged 
with  cactus.     The  moat,  some  seventy  feet  deep,  thirty 

25 


26  CUBA 

of  which  are  cut  in  rock,  is  crossed  by  a  drawbridge  to 
the  sallyport  and  the  entrance,  between  dark  rooms, 
to  the  central  court.  I  went  all  through  it  once,  down 
to  the  farthest  dungeon  we  could  reach  with  ropes  and 
lanterns,  —  saw  cells,  casemates,  kitchens,  bomb-proofs, 
and  admired  grated  embrasures,  vaulted  roofs,  dark 
recesses,  —  but  I  wouldn't  go  again,  not  for  pay,  for  the 
stairs  are  wearying  and  the  climb  hot ;  the  smells  I  re- 
member were  sickening,  and  all  in  all  I  found  there 
nothing  to  recompense  me  for  the  energy  I  expended 
upon  that  trip. 

The  guns  on  the  ramparts  are  neither  very  old,  nor 
yet  modern.  Below  the  castle,  on  the  harbor  side, 
are  the  dozen  which  constitute  the  Battery  of  the 
Twelve  _ Apostles.  It  commands  'the  harbor  mouth. 
FTve  hundred  yards  below  is  the  Battery  La  Pastora. 
East  of  the  castle,  commanding  the  sea,  is  Velasco 
Battery,  named  in  honor  of  that  Captain  Velasco 
whose  fame  is  associated  with  the  only  fighting  (1762) 
Morro  —  despite  its  warlike  aspect  —  has  ever  experi- 
enced. He  refused  to  surrender  to  the  British,  although 
he  knew  that  Morro  was  undermined.  Some  of  his 
men  deserted  him,  even  swimming  across  the  harbor 
mouth  to  get  away.  He  stayed  on  like  the  brave  soldier 
that  he  was,  and  died  of  wounds  received  in  defense  of 
the  fort  intrusted  to  his  charge.  Hostilities  were  sus- 
pended between  the  English,  attacking,  and  the  Spanish 
on  the  defense,  during  the  day  that  his  funeral  occurred. 
As  his  body  was  borne  to  its  tomb  in  one  of  the  churches 
the  salutes  of  the  Spanish  guns  in  Havana  were  answered 
by  those  of  the  British  across  the  bay.  In  the  report  Sir 
George  Pocock  made  to  the  Admiralty  the  Englishman 
paid  a  just  tribute  to  his  enemy.  In  recognition  of  his 
services  in   defense  of   Morro    (which  was,   however, 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Cuban  Pack  Train 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

A  Country  Milk  Peddler 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  27 

taken  when  the  EngUsh  sprung  their  mines  and  stormed 
the  breach  made  in  its  walls)  Spain  created  his  son 
Visconde  del  Morro,  and  decreed  that  a  ship  in  the  Span- 
ish navy  should  always  bear  the  name  of  Velasco. 
The  vessel  so  named  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can War  (it  was  built  in  1861)  was  one  of  the  fleet  at 
Manila,  and  it  was  sunk  by  the  American  ship  Boston. 
In  the  assault  on  Morro,  Velasco^s  second  in  command, 
the  Marques  de  Gonzalez,  fell,  sword  in  hand,  and 
with  these  leaders  died  130  men  of  their  garrison ;  400 
more  were  wounded.  There  is  a  tablet  to  their  memory 
set  in  one  of  the  upper  walls,  on  the  seaward  side,  above 
those  rocks  upon  which  the  Spaniards  were,  according 
to  common  report  and  little  evidence  that  I  know  of, 
fond  of  tossing  the  bodies  of  Cuban  patriots  as  tidbits  to 
sharks. 

From  Morro  one  may  walk  to  Cabanas,  or,  to  give  it 
full  title,  the  Castle  of  St.  Charles  of  the  Cabin,  which 
occupies  a  long  length  of  hill  above  the  harbor,  and  just 
opposite  Havana.  The  harbor  frontage  is  a  continuous 
wall  extending  along  the  crest  of  the  bay's  east  bank. 
The  landward  side  has  three  pronounced  bastions,  and 
is  protected  by  ditches  forty  feet  deep.  Within  the 
fortification  is  a  wearying  labyrinth  of  windings  and 
turnings,  ascents  and  descents,  narrow,  high-walled 
passages  and  vaulted  halls,  covered  ways,  courts,  bar- 
racks, prisons,  quarters,  a  chapel ;  there  are  tree-lined 
roads  and  a  drill  ground  ;  ramparts,  parapets,  and  terre- 
pleins,  one  beyond  another,  in  confusion  interminable. 
The  point  of  greatest  interest  is  Laurel  Ditch,  an  inclo- 
sure  against  the  walls  of  which  Cubans  were  lined  up 
and  shot  by  squads  of  Spanish  soldiery  detailed  to  the 
duty.  When  I  was  there  the  line  marked  by  bullets  in 
the  wall  was  distinct  for  a  distance  of  eighty-five  feet ; 


28  CUBA 

it  was  called  significantly  the  '^dead  line/'  Under  a 
tree  where  the  firing  squads  stood  the  grass  was  worn 
till  the  ground  showed  bare;  in  contrast,  close  by 
the  wall  it  grew  thick  and  rank,  fertilized,  I  veritably 
believe,  by  the  blood  shed  there.  A  bronze  memorial 
tablet  has  been  set  in  the  wall  outside  the  ditch  to  com- 
memorate the  martyrdom  of  those  who  died  there.  The 
design  represents  an  angelic  messenger  receiving  the 
soul  of  an  expiring  patriot ;  when  I  saw  the  spot  it  now 
occupies  nothing  but  a  painted  board  sign  filled  it. 

Ascending  to  the  ramparts,  one  gains  a  commanding 
view  of  harbor  and  town  and  sea  and  palm-fringed  hills 
encircling  Havana.  The  antiquated  Spanish  guns, 
elaborately  ornamented  and  each  one  bearing  the  name 
of  a  sovereign,  are  quite  in  keeping  with  Cabanas  age 
and  general  uselessness.  These  are  the  ones  fired  in 
salutation  to  entering  ships.  The  marble  shaft  which 
rises  from  the  next  parapet  commemorates  the  valor 
and  loyalty  of  Spanish  soldiers  who  marched  out  from 
Havana  and  captured  Lopez  and  the  Americans  with 
him,  who  were  betrayed  into  their  hands  in  the  hills 
of  green  Rangel,  and  executed  with  very  unnecessary 
brutality  at  Atares  along  in  1851  or  thereabouts.  As 
a  maze  of  intricacy,  Cabanas  is  a  place  to  see  and 
marvel  how  governments  spend  their  money  ;  its  real 
worth  has  never  been  proven,  for  there  has  been 
no  fighting  here  since  it  was  built.  It  was  erected 
after  the  English,  who  captured  Havana  because  they 
occupied  this  hill,  fully  demonstrated  that  whoso  holds 
its  eminence  cradles  Havana  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand. 

Beyond  Cabanas,  at  Triscornia,  the  Immigrant  Sta- 
tion, there  is  an  old  and  almost  forgotten  fort,  —  San 
Diego,  —  converted  now  to  perfect  peace,  which  ante- 
dates, I  believe,  both  its  neighbor  and  Morro. 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Entrance  to  Cabanas  Fortress 


PJiotograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Cabanas  Salutes 


THE    TOURIST'S    HAVANA  29 

The  oldest  and  by  all  odds  the  most  interesting  for- 
tification in  all  Cuba,  I  should  say,  is  La  Fuerza,  half 
hidden  between  the  Senate  and  the  old  post-office  build- 
ing, on  the  Plaza  de  Armas.  Here,  now,  is  a  place  to 
see.  It  is  in  form  quadrilateral,  having  a  bastion  at 
each  of  its  four  corners.  It  is  twenty-five  yards  in 
height ;  the  walls  are  double  and  the  terrepleins  are 
supported  on  arches,  so  I  read,  though  what  the  state- 
ment means  I  have  no  more  notion  than  others  who 
ponder  guidebooks  and  are  impressed  with  warlike  ter- 
minology. There  used  to  be  a  moat.  The  drawbridge 
is  replaced  by  a  permanent  plank  walk.  They  say 
there  is  a  bell  in  the  tower  which  formerly  sounded  the 
hours  and  clanged  alarm  at  sight  of  a  hostile  sail  in 
years  before  there  was  a  Cabanas,  a  Morro,  even  a 
Punta,  or  any  walls  to  protect  the  town  La  Fuerza  alone 
guarded. 

Work  on  La  Fuerza  was  begun  by  Hernando  de  Soto, 
and  by  1544  a  royal  decree  went  forth  that  all  warships 
entering  thereafter  should  salute  the  place  (then  almost 
complete)  with  a  ceremony  not  enjoyed  by  any  other 
city  in  the  New  World  save  Santo  Domingo.  Here  in 
Fuerza  De  Soto  lived,  and  from  here  he  sailed  away  to 
explore  unknown  areas  of  his  jurisdiction,  which  em- 
braced everything  he  might  discover  to  the  north.  He 
found  the  Mississippi  and  a  grave  in  its  dark  waters. 
On  his  departure  De  Soto  left  La  Fuerza,  and  with  it 
his  office  as  governor,  in  command  of  his  bride,  the  Lady 
Isabel  de  Bobadilla,  ^4ike  her  mother,  a  woman  of 
character,  and  kindly  disposition,  of  very  excellent 
judgment  and  appearance.'^  For  four  years  she 
awaited  his  return,  scanning  the  sea,  the  story  goes, 
from  the  little  tower  above'  Fuerza,  which  one  may  dis- 
cover by  looking    close  through  intervening  tree  tops 


30  CUBA 

from  a  certain  position  in  the  Plaza  de  Armas.  The 
httle  bronze  image  upon  the  top  of  this  tower  is  ^^La 
Habana,  ^'  and  until  one  has  set  eyes  upon  it  one  has  not 
'^seen  Havana/'  as  the  usual  raillery  runs.  When  at 
last  the  remnants  of  De  Soto's  fleet  limped  in  by  the 
harbor's  mouth,  and  survivors,  landing,  hastened  to 
tell  the  Lady  Isabel  of  her  husband's  fate,  her  heart 
broke,  and,  the  chroniclers  add  briefly,  ^^she  died." 

La  Fuerza  is  then  the  oldest  habitable  and  inhabited 
building  in  the  western  hemisphere.  Certain  edifices  at 
Santo  Domingo  antedate  it  (convents  that  while  Chris- 
topher Columbus  still  lived  arose  in  now  despised 
Hayti,  in  size  and  architecture  surpassing,  their  ruins 
show,  any  church  edifice  upon  Fifth  Avenue  to-day  ex- 
cepting only  the  Catholic  cathedral  there) ;  but  they 
are  abandoned  wreckage,  whereas  La  Fuerza  houses  a 
garrison  of  Rural  Guards  ;  its  dungeons  are  storerooms, 
and  General  Monteagudo  and  his  family  reside  on  the 
second  floor. 

To  make  him  comfortable  they  have  repaired  the 
stairway;  smooth  cement  steps  have  replaced  the  old 
stones,  worn  hollow  by  the  feet  which  through  the 
centuries  had  passed  up  and  down.  Arms  and  ammuni- 
tion of  latest  design  are  packed  away  in  the  dungeons, 
—  damp  and  silent  chambers,  lighted  by  way  of  narrow 
apertures  cut  in  the  thick  walls.  I  wonder  into  which  of 
these  they  thrust  ^^Mr.  Bryant,  prize  master"  ? 

It  was  in  the  year  1779,  to  digress  in  consideration  of 
Mr.  Bryant,  while  the  American  war  for  independence 
was  on,  that  out  of  the  North  came  sailing  the  Yankee 
sloop  HerOj  square-sterned,  twenty  tons,  carrying  four 
guns  and  forty  men,  captain,  Caleb  Greene,  of  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island.  She  had  a  cargo  of  hoops  and 
long  staves,  and  she  was  bound  to  sell  the  same  at  Santo 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  31 

Domingo,  in  commendable  Yankee  fashion.  There 
were,  however,  two  British  vessels,  the  Carlisle  and  the 
Gayton,  cruising  West  Indian  waters  in  wait  for  pre- 
cisely such  as  she.  She  was  taken,  to  be  brief,  and  a 
prize  crew  was  put  aboard,  in  command  of  ^^Mr. 
Bryant,  prize  master. ^^  ^^  With  strong  gales  and  cloudy^' 
they  got  her  by  Monte  Cristi,  bound  straightaway 
for  the  prize  courts  of  Jamaica.  They  were  chased, 
however,  by  a  Yankee  brig  through  ^^  brisk  gales  and 
hazey^'  and  to  keep  right  before  the  wind  and  outdis- 
tance her,  as  they  did,  they  went  far  north  of  their 
course  and  brought  up  with  a  crash,  in  a  storm,  on  the 
shores  of  eastern  Cuba.  Here  is  no  place  to  repeat  de- 
tails I  read  with  such  interest  in  Mr.  Bryant^s  logbook, 
preserved  in  the  files  of  the  National  Archives  of  Cuba, 
then  stored  on  the  upper  floor  of  La  Fuerza.  They 
'^caught  a  young  shark  and  eat  him'';  they  caught 
^^some  crabbes  and  eat  them''  too;  and  they  rifled  a 
pelican's  nest  of  its  young.  They  flew  ^^  signals  in 
Destress,"  and  a  brig  and  a  sloop  went  by,  disregarding 
these  as  well  as  the  voice  of  their  swivel  gun.  They 
were  finally  taken  off  by  ^^ye  Havannah,^^  a  small 
schooner  whose  master  ^^  used"  the  castaways  ^^dis- 
creetly," but  at  its  destination.  Port  au  Prince,  they 
were,  in  accordance  with  the  hospitable  customs  of  the 
time,  committed  to  the  guardhouse.  Mr.  Bryant 
escaped  ^^just  as  the  Spaniards  were  saying  their 
pater  nosterJ^  A  guide  he  bribed  left  him  ^Ho  wander 
about  to  and  fro  in  a  very  dark  and  dismal  night  far  from 
House  or  anything  like  a  House,  although  I  had," 
Mr.  Bryant  adds,  ''before  paid  his  fee."  Fortune  had 
not,  however,  entirely  deserted  ''the  Enghshman," 
for  he  got  liberty  from  a  "Humain  Spaniard,  a  gentle- 
man, to  stay  at  his  House,"  upon  which  he  chanced, 


32  CUBA 

where  he  amused  himself,  until  opportunity  offered  to 
get  to  the  British  possession  of  Jamaica,  by  teaching 
English  to  the  family  of  his  benefactor,  Captain  D. 
Bernabe  de  la  Torre,  and  from  them,  in  turn,  acquiring 
at  least  their  names  in  Spanish.  He  left  on  hearing 
that  a  fisherman  from  Jamaica  was  on  shore.  The 
ladies  assembled  as  he  departed,  and  wished  him  '^good 
Luck,''  on  which  he,  not  ungallant,  ^^give  them  three 
chears.''  The  fisherman  refused  him  passage  and  set  him 
ashore  on  Sandy  Key  ''where  2  Spaniards,  a  mulatto  and 
a  portageezeman  was  living  to  fish  for  Turtle.''  Time 
went  by.  ''No  appearance  of  any  relief,"  Mr.  Bryant 
confided  to  his  log,  "and  God  only  knows  when  any 
will  offer.  .  .  .  Every  day  seems  a  year,  and  still  not  the 
smallest  appearance  of  any  relief.  ,  .  ."  Then  blank 
pages.  Mr.  Bryant  reached  Cuba  alive,  however,  for 
from  Bayamo  they  forwarded  to  the  captain-general  the 
documents  I  examined,  —  "papers  found  on  the  Eng- 
lishman." Possibly  they  brought  him,  too,  to  Havana, 
though  here  I  permit  imagination  to  transgress.  I  do 
not  know  that  the  captain-general  imprisoned  "Mr. 
Bryant,  prize  master,"  in  Fuerza,  as  he  might  be  surely 
expected  to  do,  however,  at  that  particular  period 
especially ;  I  do  not  know  that  he  forgot  to  bring  him 
forth  again,  —  but  such  things  have  occurred.  Per- 
haps "the  Englishman"  found  favor  with  Santiago  or 
with  those  of  its  people  who  had  removed  to  Bayamo 
through  fear  of  buccaneers;  perhaps  they  gave  him 
passage  on  the  first  smuggler's  ship  outbound  for 
Jamaica,  from  where  in  time  he  returned  his  thanks  to 
Captain  D.  Bernabe  dela  Torre,  the  "Humain  Spainard" 
of  Hayti,  along  with  "2  english  game  cocks  and  a  case  of 
good  Razon."  Yet  I  declare  that  the  ghost  of  Mr. 
Bryant  gazes  out  at  me  from  behind  the  double,  barred 


PhoHnirapn  oij  A/ficricnn  I'lioto  Company 

Tower  of  La  Fuerza 

Showing  eflfigy,  La  Habana 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

La  Fuerza 

The  oldest  habitable  and  inhabited  building  in  the  western  hemisphere 


THE    TOUBIStS    HAVANA  33 

doors  of  those  dungeons  at  Fuerza,  —  he's  looking 
through  all  the  centuries  for  ^Hhe  smallest  appearance 
of  any  relief  !'' 

And,  as  he  turned  from  the  unsympathetic  sea 
around  Sandy  Key  to  reform  the  business  methods 
of  ^^2  Spaniards,  a  mulatto  and  a  portageezeman, 
living  to  fish  for  Turtle/'  because,  as  he  gravely 
observes,  they  had  not  ^Hhe  right  notion  of  catch- 
ing them,''  so,  I  fancy,  finding  ^^no  appearance  of 
any  relief"  in  visitor  after  visitor  who  intrudes,  now, 
on  his  retirement,  he  must  solace  himself  with  criticis- 
ing the  barrack  life  of  the  motley  garrison  with 
which  he  shares  La  Fuerza,  time  being.  Mr.  Bryant 
was  something  of  a  soldier,  I  doubt  not,  in  his  day ; 
I  wonder  if  his  judgment  here,  too,  is  that  they  have 
^'not  the  right  notion  !" 

The  very  picturesque  fort  which  adds  so  greatly  to 
the  beauty  of  the  Glorieta  at  the  foot  of  Prado  where 
that  avenue  joins  the  sea  wall  boulevard  of  Malecon,  is 
Castle  San  Salvador  of  the  Point.  Its  construction  was 
begun  in  1589,  work  having  commenced  just  previously 
on  Morro  opposite,  which  the  fortlet  at  Punta  comple- 
ments in  defense  of  Havana.  Upon  the  outer  walls  of 
the  fort  are  old  cannon ;  they  have  earned  their  honor- 
able retirement,  for  when  the  English  besieged  Havana 
in  1762,  they  were  silenced  only  by  the  batteries  of 
Morro  itself,  held  by  the  enemy.  The  reluctant  sur- 
render of  Punta  marked  the  end  of  this  city's  resistance 
to  Pocock  and  to  Albemarle. 

Formerly  the  fort  at  Punta  was  well  outside  the  city 
proper.  It  was  200  yards  from  the  city  walls,  and  it  was 
separated  from  them  by  a  moat  and  a  drawbridge. 
Where  the  walls  once  stood  is  now  a  sloping  reach  of 
parked  ground,  stretching  from  the  sea  wall  here  to 


34  CUBA 

Trocadero  Street,  and,  interrupted  by  modern  buildings, 
on  to  the  old  Arsenal. 

The  building  of  these  walls  began  in  1633,  and  nine 
thousand  men,  mostly  African  slaves,  lent  pro  rata  by 
residents  in  the  city,  labored  upon  them.  A  tax  on 
wine  went  toward  payment  of  the  work,  and  the  coffers 
of  Mexico  contributed.  Originally  there  were  two  gates 
only  in  the  city  walls,  one  near  Punta  and  the  other  at 
the  head  of  Muralla  Street.  Later  two  other  gates 
were  opened.     Thejwalls  were  finished  in  1797. 

Havana  outgrew  the  protection  they  furnished.  No 
longer  a  necessity,  they  became  a  nuisance.  I  remem- 
ber that  in  1900-1902  squatting  tenements  sheltered 
squalor  all  along  their  length,  for  we  visited  the  last  of  the 
reconcentrados  at  about  that  time,  in  crowded  and  dirty 
quarters  standing  then  under  the  single  turret  left 
now,  like  a  landmark,  back  of  the  Church  of  the  Angels 
and  in  front  of  the  Tobacco  Trust.  It  was  under  the 
Palma  administration  that  the  last  of  their  wreckage 
was  removed,  leaving  only  this  monument  and  another 
somewhat  similar  at  the  head  of  Teniente  Rey  Street 
as  mementoes. 

The  fortification  known  as  Principe  Castle,  crowning 
Principe,  formerly  Arostegui  Hill,  at  the  end  of  Carlos 
III  Boulevard,  was  built  by  Silvestre  Albarca  in  1774- 
1779.  The  height  had  been  temporarily  fortified  in 
1771.  This  is  now  the  national  penitentiary.  Beside 
it  are  many  barrack-like  buildings,  constituting  Military 
Hospital  No.  1.  Beyond  these,  on  the  seaward  side  of 
the  hill,  overlooking  Vedado,  Havana,  green  hills  and 
valleys  of  inland  country,  and  a  wide  blue  sweep  of 
gulf,  is  the  old  Pirotecnia  Militar,  now  the  University  of 
Havana,  an  institution  founded  in  1721,  by  a  papal  bull 
issued  to  Dominican  monks  by  Innocent  XIII.     It 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  35 

was  then  the  Royal  and  Pontifical  University  of 
Havana.  It  lost  the  ^' pontifical'^  in  1842,  with  the 
secularization  of  the  Dominican  Order,  and  the  ^^ royal' ' 
became  ^^ national''  somewhere  along  in  1902,  when  the 
school  removed  from  its  old  home  in  the  Dominican 
Convent  building,  down  town,  to  its  present  far  pleas- 
anter  situation.  It  seems  strange,  yet  is  a  fact,  that  the 
University  has  always  been  co-educational ;  first  it  was 
only  potentially  so,  for  it  was  so  far  from  the  thought  of 
its  founders  that  women  would  attend  that  they  forgot 
to  bar  them,  and  now  perhaps  one  sixth  or  even  a  fifth  of 
the  students  are  girls  ;  most  of  these  are  enrolled  in  the 
school  of  pedagogics,  but  some  study  medicine,  and, 
now  and  then,  one  or  two  take  to  law.  It  is  the 
University  of  Havana  that  legalizes  foreign  diplomas. 
Graduates  of  foreign  institutions,  in  order  to  practice 
their  respective  professions  in  Cuba,  must  conform 
to  the  requirements  of  a  long  military  order  that  sub- 
jects them  to  fees  and  examinations  and  red  tape 
measureless  ;  time,  money,  and  patience  are  consumed, 
but  after  the  ordeal  the  name  of  the  successful  candidate 
is  published  in  the  yearly  report  of  the  University,  and 
the  applicant  is  then  considered  ^incorporated  in  the 
college."  Of  what  Americans  know  as  ^'college  life 
there  is  none  at  all  in  this  University.  When  I  investi- 
gated I  found  that  the  student  body  was  not  organized ; 
there  were  no  elections,  and  so  no  perennial  excitement 
of  petty  but  very  practical  politics.  I  found  no  rushes, 
rows,  and  rivalries  between  the  ^ 'years."  In  fact,  the 
courses  are  so  arranged  that  no  recognition  of  classes 
is  practicable.  There  were  no  flourishing  athletic  or- 
ganizations ;  those  boys  who  constituted  the  nine  and 
the  eleven  that  did  exist  were  regarded  as  suspicion 
characters  by  faculty  and  students  alike.  .  There  was 


36  CUBA 

then  no  attempt  at  field  sports.  There  is  no  gymnasium. 
I  have  heard  since  some  dispirited  ^' yells.''  There  is 
no  campus  daily  paper,  no  comic  weekly,  no  literary 
monthly;  in  1904  a  ''Literary  Review''  issued  a  few 
solemn  numbers,  in  comparison  to  which  the  annual 
report  of  an  archaeological  society  would  seem  frivolous 
reading.  In  short,  the  student  here  never  goes  to  col- 
lege ;  he  merely  attends  school.  He  goes  to  classes  and 
he  comes  home  again,  —  not  to  a  dormitory  or  a  club  or 
a  friendly  ''frat  house,"  but  to  sl  bordin  where  he  is 
decidedly  persona  non  grata^  because  he  and  his  kind 
(so  one  who  ought  to  know  confessed  it  to  me)  delight  to 
break  furniture  and  to  steal  small  ornaments,  to  make 
love  to  lady  lodgers,  to  invite  ejectment  by  every  known 
wile  and  others  especially  invented  as  need  appears. 
There  is  an  excellent  physician  in  this  capital  whose 
boast  it  is  that  in  college  days  he  lived  through  all  the 
student  boarding  houses  in  Havana,  paid  none,  and 
from  each  was  finally  summarily  set  into  the  street 
'' without  a  latchkey."  If  then  the  Cuban  student  is 
not  talking  politics,  or  plotting  against  the  class  above, 
organizing  next  semester's  campaign  for  his  ''frat, " 
—  what,  besides  ''beating"  his  boarding  house,  is  the 
young  man  doing  with  his  leisure  time  ?  The  question 
had  better  pass  uninvestigated.  They  are  a  solemn  set, 
these  Cuban  students,  pale,  emaciated,  and  sunken 
eyed.  I'd  like  to  think  it  is  consumption  of  too  much 
midnight  oil  ails  all  of  them.  Some,  certainly,  are 
serious-minded  and  well-informed,  and  they  take  a  sur- 
prising, and,  to  an  American,  inexplicable,  interest  in 
matters  one  might  imagine  would  concern  them  not  at 
all.  They  frequently  lead  in  demonstations  for  or 
against  the  government.  They  stoned  the  office  of  an 
editor  who  denounced  Ferrer,  and  they  compelled  the 


PJiotogravTi  by  American  Photo  Company 

La  Chorrera 


'  Kemnant  (jf  Havana'.s  Old  Cii^y   VV^alls 
Showing  part  of  the  Prado-Malecon  Drive  in  Havana 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  37 

speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives  to  apologize  to 
them  for  certain  utterances  of  his.  There  is  perhaps  no 
body  in  this  community  any  single  man  or  institution 
desires  less  to  antagonize,  nor  any  body  that,  once  an- 
tagonized, or,  vice  versa,  pleased,  can  make  its  opinions 
quite  so  obvious  to  all  concerned,  as  can  the  students 
of  Havana  University. 

Atares  Castle,  beyond  the  Western  Railway  Station, 
in  the  suburb  of  Jesus  del  Monte,  was  built  by  Agustin 
Cranmer  in  1763-1767  after  Havana^s  English  captors 
had  emphasized  the  strategical  importance  of  its  hill, 
at  the  head  of  the  harbor.  On  the  slopes  of  Atares 
Crittenden  of  Kentucky  and  fifty  of  the  Americans  who 
with  him  had  a  share  in  the  Lopez  Expedition  of  1851 
were  shot,  and  their  bodies  were  dragged  at  the  heels  of 
the  Spaniards'  horses  through  the  streets  of  the  town 
over  rocks  and  through  mire. 

A  park  before  the  Beneficencia  Orphan  Asylum  covers 
the  site  of  Reina  Battery;  Santa  Clara,  also  on  the 
Vedado  car  route,  is  still  occupied,  as  are  those  other 
battery-barracks  along  the  shore  in  this  suburb.  There 
is  a  f  ortlet  at  Chorerra,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Almendares, 
and  another  corresponding  to  it  at  Cojimar.  All  are 
recent  constructions  compared  with  the  torreon  (tower) 
at  San  Lazaro,  just  beside  that  vanishing  inlet,  in  front 
of  the  leper  hospital.  This  was  built  in  1556,  not  as  a 
defense,  but  as  a  lookout  against  pirates.  Here  citizens 
kept  watch  by  night  and  by  day,  and  on  sight  of  a  suspi- 
cious sail,  they  warned  Havana. 

Of  all  the  churches  the  Cathedral  interests  the  visitor 
most,  because  here  in  a  niche  now  marked  by  a  patch  of 
fresh  plaster,  near  the  altar,  on  the  left  as  one  faces  it,  the 
bones  of  Christopher  Columbus  used  to  rest.  In  1898, 
when  the  Spanish  evacuated  Havana,  they  took  the 


38  CUBA 

remains  with  them,  reinterring  them  with  ceremony  in 
the  Cathedral  at  Seville.  Our  Cathedral  —  of  age- 
stained  stone  —  faces  Cathedral  or  Cienaga  (Swamp) 
Square.  It  was  planned  as  a  convent  by  the  Jesuits  as 
early  as  1656,  and  by  them  erected  in  1724  ;  after  their 
expulsion  it  became  the  Cathedral  in  1789.  Its  interior 
seems  to  me  utterly  devoid  of  interest,  for  despite  guide- 
book assertion  I  cannot  discover  either  value  or  beauty 
in  its  altar  paintings,  nor  anything  in  particular  to  ad- 
mire in  its  decoration,  because,  to  my  notion,  this  deco- 
ration is  not  only  in  itself  unlovely,  but  it  actually 
detracts  from  what  beauty  the  building  might  have  by 
right  of  its  size.  Certain  mahogany  chests  of  the  rooms 
back  of  the  church  proper  are  attractive  because  they 
look  old  and  mysterious,  and  in  one  tall  wardrobe-like 
casing  there  I  saw  a  handsome  silver  '^holy  of  holies^' 
and  a  cross  set  with  precious  stones ;  the  genuineness  of 
some  (the  emerald  drops)  I  doubt  seriously. 

The  old  Dominican  Convent,  filling  the  block  bounded 
by^^Obispo,  San  Ignacio,  O'Reilly,  and  Mercaderes,  is 
older  than  the  Cathedral,  for  it  was  founded  in  1578. 
The  white  friars  deserted  it,  however,  years  ago.  Ware- 
house brokers  and  clerks  hold  forth  in  its  cloistered 
corridors  now. 

The  Franciscan  Convent,  its  tower  standing  well  above 
any  other  in  the  city,  faces  the  Plaza  de  San  Francisco  in 
the  very  center  of  the  wholesale  district.  The  convent 
building  is,  I  believe,  the  oldest  of  its  kind  in  the  city, 
for  it  was  begun  in  1574  and  finished  in  1591.  It  has 
been  several  times  remodeled  and  improved.  It  was 
'^desecrated''  by  the  English  when  they  captured 
Havana  in  1762 ;  I  understand  that  they  used  it  as 
a  barracks,  and,  what  was  worse,  held  ^^ Protestant" 
services  here.     From  that  date  it  has  been  deemed  fit 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  39 

for  secular  purposes  only ;  it  is  the  Havana  customs 
house  now. 

On  O^Reilly  Street,  between  Compostela  and  Aguacate, 
is  the  dreary  pile  of  Santa  Catalina  Convent,  a  nunnery 
of  the  old  and  storied  style.  Some  hundred  women, 
bound  by  the  strictest  vows,  pass  their  lives  within  its 
inclosure.  The  windows  are  closed  ;  no  gleam  of  light 
ever  shines  through.  One  never  sees  the  cloistered  nuns. 
Acceptable  girls  who  desire  to  immure  themselves  are 
received  on  a  year's  probation.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
they  may  leave,  it  is  said,  if  they  will,  but  they  generally 
elect  to  remain,  despite,  sometimes,  the  prayers  of  their 
relatives,  to  whom  they  are  lost  forever  once  the  doors 
close  upon  them  at  the  end  of  their  novitiate.  The  con- 
vent is  wealthy.  It  has  received  many  bequests,  and 
girls  who  become  its  ^^ brides  of  Christ''  (by  joining  the 
sisterhood  that  is  immured)  usually  bring  some  dowry 
to  the  institution.  The  convent  building  was  begun 
in  1680,  and  the  church  was  dedicated  in  1700.  It  con- 
tains relics  of  the  holy  martyrs  Saints  Celestine  and 
Lucida,  brought  from  Rome  in  1803. 

La  Merced  Church,  on  the  corner  of  Cuba  and  Merced 
streets,  is  one  of  the  most  fashionable  in  town.  Among 
its  possessions  is  a  faded  painting  representing  with  con- 
siderable inaccuracy  in  dates,  names,  and  drawing  what 
is  considered  to  have  been  the  first  miracle  performed 
in  the  New  World,  on  a  battle  field  in  Santo  Domingo, 
when  Columbus  and  his  men  appealed  to  Our  Lady  of 
Mercies  for  help  against  the  Indians  and  were  rewarded 
with  an  apparition  of  the  Virgin  and  the  Child. 

Other  churches  are  Cristo,  where  Catholic  services  are 
held  in  English,  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Angel,  a  com- 
paratively modern  edifice  on  Pefia  Pobre  Hill,  well 
worth  visiting  if  for  nothing  more  than  the  view  down 


40  CUBA 

the  queer  narrow  streets  that  lead  to  its  doors ;  San 
Agustin  ;  and,  in  that  suburb,  Jesus  del  Monte  Church, 
on  a  hill,  from  the  yard  before  which  a  very  beautiful 
view  of  Havana  is  to  be  had  ;  and,  finally,  Belen,  on  the 
corner  of  Luz  and  Compostela.  It  was  built  in  1704, 
and  takes  its  name  from  Our  Lady  of  Bethlehem,  patron- 
ess in  Spain  of  the  Francisan  Order  of  Jeronymites.  The 
church  and  monastery,  and  free  school  in  connection,  were 
maintained  by  the  Franciscan  monks  for  nearly  a  century. 
Then  the  buildings  were  taken  by  the  government  for 
use  as  barracks.  In  1853  they  were  given  to  the  Jesuits, 
who  established  the  College  of  Belen  for  boys,  and  set 
up  an  astronomical  and  meteorological  observatory 
reputed  to  be  the  best  in  all  Latin  America,  they  also 
collected  a  library  rich  in  prints  and  drawings  illustrating 
Cuban  history,  and  formed  a  museum  of  native  woods 
and  natural  history  specimens.  James  Anthony  Froude 
wrote  of  them  in  1887,  when  they  had  a  school  of  400  pay 
pupils  and  hundreds  free:  ^^  They  keep  on  a  level  with  the 
age ;  they  are  men  of  learning  ;  they  are  men  of  science ; 
they  are  the  Royal  Society  of  Cuba,''  a  reputation  to 
which  they  live  up  even  to  this  day.  They  have  estab- 
lished a  seismic  station  at  Luyano.  It  is  of  Belen 
Church  that  the  Countess  Merlin  wrote,  in  her  letters, 
when  she  said  :  ^^  Yesterday  afternoon  I  drove  with  my 
aunt,  Maria  Antonia,  and  before  making  our  way  to 
Tacon  Boulevard  (then  the  popular  promenade)  we 
went  to  see  my  cousin  Pepilla.  As  we  crossed  Belen 
Square  our  way  was  blocked  by  a  mob  gathered  about 
the  church.  The  crowd  beat  at  the  doors,  but  did  not 
dare  to  enter.  One  door  was  shut  and  the  other  half 
open ;  through  it  suddenly  appeared  the  head  of  a  man 
who  cried  out  solemnly  :  ^  Pray  for  the  criminal,  oh  my 
brothers  ! '     I  asked  what  all  this  meant,  and  was  told 


THE    TOURIST'S    HAVANA  41 

that  a  murderer  escaping  from  justice  had  just  taken  ref- 
uge in  that  church,  which  can  extend  the  right  of  asylum. 
^He  made  a  clever  escape/  added  the  unknown  man 
who  explained  to  us.  ^It  was  a  long  distance  and  every- 
body ran  after  him.  If  he  had  not  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing Belen  .  .  . '  ^  How  is  that  ?  ^  I  asked.  '  Have  not 
all  the  churches  the  same  privilege  of  extending  the 
right  of  asylum?'  ^No,  madame.  Belen  and  one  other 
are  the  only  ones  that  have  the  right  and  no  one  but 
the  priests  know  which  that  other  church  is.  If  by 
chance  a  fugitive  does  happen  to  get  into  it,  his  having 
guessed  correctly  is  considered  a  proof  of  divine  pro- 
tection, and  the  malefactor  is  pardoned.''' 

Few  church  services  in  Havana,  even  during  Holy 
Week,  are  really  interesting.  I  attended  misa  de  gallo 
(cock's  mass)  one  Christmas  Eve  at  midnight,  and 
heard  the  barnyard  fowls  imitated  in  the  music,  — 
at  Santa  Catalina,  the  cloistered  convent !  That  was 
years  ago ;  only  recently  I  walked  the  town  over  on 
another  Christmas  Eve,  and  failed  to  find  any  church 
where  such  services  were  being  held.  It  may  be  that  the 
faithful  were  at  mass  behind  the  doors  we  found  closed, 
but  assuredly  the  half  drunk  and  wholly  irreverent 
public  abroad  on  the  streets  on  Christmas  Eve  is  no 
longer  admitted  freely.  During  Holy  Week,  we  have 
^Hhe  Monument,"  when  the  altars  are  brightly  illu- 
minated and  the  Sacrament  displayed  to  adoration,  but 
even  on  these  occasions  the  churches  close  early,  to 
avoid  scenes  entailing  disrespect.  On  ^^  Saturday  of 
Glory"  the  Ascension  is  commemorated,  as  a  tremen- 
dous clangor  of  bells  at  ten  o'clock  announces  to  an  un- 
interested and  unobservant  town. 

No  tourist  in  Havana  fails  to  visit  Colon  Cemetery, the 
unlovely  city  of  our  dead.     There  are  here  no  wide  and 


42  CUBA 

quiet  lawns,  no  restful  vistas,  to  comfort  the  living  in 
the  thought  that  they  make  the  final  abiding  place  of 
those  who  sleep  eternally  a  little  easier  to  endure,  but 
only  hard,  dry  paths  among  vaults  of  brick  and  marble, 
hung  with  hideous  garlands  of  bisque  flowers  fastened, 
with  painted  tin  leaves,  on  wire  stems.  One  passes  be- 
neath a  ponderous  entrance,  on  the  pinnacle  of  which 
stands  a  group  of  three  figures,  heroic  size,  represent- 
ing Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity.  A  bas-relief  below 
shows  Columbus  bearing  the  light  of  Christianity 
into  the  New  World.  One  looks,  of  course,  for 
the  tomb  of  General  Calixto  Garcia,  recipient  of  the 
famous  message,  and  for  that  of  Maximo  Gomez,  who 
commanded  the  Cuban  Army  of  Liberation,  at  the  head 
of  which  he  rode  into  Havana  when  the  tricolor  flag 
of  the  single  star  made  its  first  official  entrance  into  this 
capital.  A  little  to  the  left  as  one  advances,  on  a  side 
avenue,  is  a  monument  erected  to  the  Student  Martyrs, 
shot  at  Punta  in  1871.  The  figures  at  the  base  of  the 
shaft  represent  Justice  and  vindicating  History,  truth 
written  on  her  scroll.  The  very  peculiar  winged  figure 
emerging  from  the  door  open  in  the  pedestal  is  symboli- 
cal of  Innocence.  The  eight  young  men  who  lie  buried 
here  were  members  of  a  medical  class  in  the  University. 
The  class  entire  was  charged  with  desecrating,  in  an  idle 
moment  while  they  waited  a  lecture  to  be  given  in  a 
classroom  adjoining  the  old  Espada  Cemetery,  the  grave 
of  a  Spanish  journalist  killed  in  Key  West  in  the  course 
of  a  political  quarrel  with  a  Cuban.  Later  this  man's 
son  was  summoned  from  Spain ;  the  niche  was  opened, 
and  the  fact  that  no  desecration  had  occurred  was 
demonstrated.  But  meanwhile  the  class  was  arrested 
and  tried  by  court-martial.  It  was  a  time  of  very  bitter 
feeling ;  for  some  reason  or  other  the  Spanish  Volunteers, 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  43 

quartered  in  Havana  in  numbers,  took  up  the  matter, 
and,  parading  the  streets  in  a  state  of  mutiny,  de- 
manded the  death  of  the  young  men,  who  were  Cubans, 
though  of  very  loyal  Spanish  parentage.  They  were 
bravely  defended  by  a  Spanish  officer,  Capdevilla,  but 
nevertheless  to  appease  the  mob  eight  were  sentenced 
to  be  shot,  and  were  duly  executed,  on  November  27, 
1871.  The  youngest  was  sixteen  years  old  and  the 
eldest  in  his  twenties.  It  was  considered  significant 
then,  but  to  me  at  least  it  seems  natural  enough  now, 
that  the  last  letters  of  these  eight  were  addressed  to 
their  mothers,  —  none  wrote  to  the  Spanish  fathers, 
one  of  whom  offered  his  considerable  fortune,  first 
for  his  boy^s  life,  and  then  for  merely  a  delay  in 
the  proceedings.  After  the  execution,  which  occurred 
by  the  city  prison,  where  a  fragment  of  the  house  wall 
against  which  they  were  lined  up  is  left  standing 
as  a  monument,  the  bodies  of  the  eight  young  victims 
were  carted  away  and  buried  outside  consecrated 
ground,  crisscross,  in  one  ditch,  as  those  of  traitors. 
Later,  they  were  removed  to  their  present  resting 
place.  Others  of  their  classmates  were  sentenced 
to  hard  labor,  and  were  jeered  as  they  marched,  like 
convicts,  through  the  public  streets  of  this  city.  Still 
others  were  exiled  to  Spain,  and  found  more  kindly 
reception  there.  Later,  by  way  of  pardons,  the  gov- 
ernment did  all  that  it  could  in  reparation  for  the  fear- 
ful damage  the  mob  had  inflicted,  in  a  moment  when 
its  madness  found  local  officials  weak.  The  man  who 
signed  the  death  warrant  of  his  eight  young  compa- 
triots was  a  Cuban,  acting,  in  the  governor-generaUs 
absence,  as  his  substitute.  Behind  the  chapel  in 
Colon  Cemetery  is  the  plot  of  ground  where  the  vic- 
tims of  the  Maine  were  buried  until  their  removal  to 


44  CUBA 

the  United  States.  Before  one  arrives  there,  one  passes 
the  costly  Firemen's  Monument,  erected  by  popular  sub- 
scription to  the  memory  of  thirty  members  of  the  Volun- 
teer Brigade  who  lost  their  lives  in  performance  of  their 
duty  when  a  warehouse  burned  on  Mercaderes  Street. 
Gunpowder  stored  within  the  building,  in  defiance  of 
the  law,  exploded  in  the  conflagration,  and  many  persons 
besides  these  were  injured  and  killed. 

There  is  to  my  notion  nothing  whatsoever  either 
pleasant  or  peaceful  about  this  cemetery  of  ours,  but 
there  is  much  which  is  astonishing  to  be  seen  along  about 
four  o'clock  on  any  afternoon  when  funerals  arrive. 
Cuba  is  a  bad  enough  place  to  live  in,  but  certainly  it  is 
a  still  worse  place  in  which  to  die  ! 

Twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago  it  was  no  uncommon 
sight  to  see  upon  the  streets  of  Havana  a  carriage 
(perhaps  an  elegant  conveyance,  or  maybe  merely  a 
hired  hack)  moving  slowly,  carrying  inside  a  Catholic 
priest  in  the  full  regalia  of  his  office;  an  altar  boy, bearing 
the  articles  necessary  to  the  ceremony  of  the  last  sacra- 
ment, preceded  the  equipage.  Men  who  passed  lifted 
their  hats  ;  women  crossed  themselves  and  prayed,  while 
the  singular  procession  moved  forward  to  the  sound 
of  a  tinkling  bell  toward  the  house  death  menaced. 
Now,  however,  that  public  manifestations  are  for- 
bidden to  the  Church,  its  priests  go  to  administer 
Extreme  Unction  quietly,  with  less  display,  but  I  re- 
member seeing  a  coche  pass  one  day,  conveying  a  priest 
and  his  impedimenta,  and  learned  from  a  pedestrian, 
who  uncovered  and  stood  with  head  bowed,  that  al- 
though no  altar  boy  was  in  evidence  (a  bell  did  sound) 
this  padre  preceded  the  Dark  Messenger  through 
somebody's  door. 

The   pristine   glories   of   funerals,  however,  remain 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Monument  to  Student  Martyrs 

Colon  Cemetery,  Havana 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  45 

undimmed.  The  great  black  hearses  still  gleam  with 
gold;  their  coachmen  wear  bright  red  coats  trimmed 
with  gilt  braid,  smallclothes  to  match,  and  cocked 
hats  on  flaxen  wigs.  The  cars  are  drawn  by  three  or 
four  spans  of  horses,  draped  in  black  nets,  with  yellow 
garnishings.  Occasionally,  while  one  hearse  suffices 
to  carry  the  coffin,  three  or  four  more  follow  after  it 
with  flowers,  the  huge  wreaths  hung  often  upon  the 
four  corners  of  the  conveyance,  and  across  the  decora- 
tive figures  that  kneel  on  top.  At  the  cemetery  these 
extra  or  gala  cars  (the  more  of  them  the  finer  the  funeral) 
draw  aside  while  the  one  conveying  the  body  passes 
through  the  great  entrance,  slowly  approaching  the 
chapel,  which  is  within  the  burial  grounds.  Chanting 
priests,  dispensing  holy  water,  meet  it  as  it  enters,  and, 
turning,  follow  it,  chanting  still.  If  by  chance  the 
dead  man  died  ^^out  of  the  faith,''  he  receives  no  such 
welcome,  —  lucky  he  to  get  within  the  ^^holy  field''  at 
all !  The  friends  who  have  come  in  carriages  leave 
their  conveyances  at  the  gate,  and,  bareheaded,  march 
on  foot  to  the  church.  No  women,  be  it  said  in  pass- 
ing, attend  funerals  in  this  country ;  her  grave  is  the 
only  place  a  Latin  lady  approaches  unchaperoned. 
The  candles  on  the  chapel  altar  are  lighted,  and  from 
a  long  distance  without  they  can  be  seen  shining  against 
the  semi-darkness  indoors.  The  hearse  stops  before 
the  chapel,  the  coffin  is  withdrawn  and  carried  inside 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  pallbearers,  the  priests  hav- 
ing entered  already.  The  friends  troop  after.  Solemn 
chantings  and  responses  sound.  Without,  however, 
the  red-clad  attendants  of  the  hearse  have  uncere- 
moniously snatched  off  their  yellow  wigs,  and  stand 
mopping  their  faces  free  of  sweat  and  lugubrious  ex- 
pression.    The  coachmen  of  the  carriages  which  have 


46  CUBA 

followed  up  the  avenue  at  the  rear  of  the  procession 
of  pedestrians  tilt  back  their  high  hats,  and  with  the 
movement  cast  aside  solemnity.  They  laugh  and  chat 
together.  All  the  pomp  and  circumstance  in  which 
they  acted  part  is  tawdriest  mummery  !  From  the 
chapel  the  coffin  is  borne  to  its  vault,  or  to  its  grave 
in  earth,  for  there  are  some  such,  in  the  excavated  dirt 
of  which  one  may  see  the  unjointed  bones  of  predeces- 
sors in  this  resting  place,  who  have  been  removed  to 
make  room  for  the  newcomer,  deposited  next  with  a 
jolt. 

Graves  are  for  sale  (price,  $10  to  $30  a  meter)  or 
for  rent.  There  are,  besides,  certain  burial  dues,  which 
may  be  waived  in  the  case  of  the  "  solemnly  poor.''  If 
at  the  end  of  five  years  payments  of  rent  have  ceased, 
the  body  is  dug  up,  passed  through  the  crematory, 
they  say,  and  consigned  to  the  bone  heap.  Along  in 
1901-1902  I  climbed  the  wall  of  this  osario  (somebody 
had  placed  a  plank  conveniently),  and  photographed 
the  moldering  scrap  heap  inside,  —  skulls,  thigh 
bones,  arms,  legs,  and  broken  coffins,  tossed  there 
pell-mell  and  left  to  bleach  in  air  and  sun  and  rain  ! 

Undertakers  are  scarce  in  Havana,  or  were  five 
years  ago,  to  be  exact,  when  I  had  occasion  to  investi- 
gate and  ^^ write  them  up.''  I  learned  enough  then  to 
satisfy  me  once  for  all,  and  have  not  turned  any  atten- 
tion to  this  matter  since.  Embalming  was  then  a 
novelty  here.  The  business  of  a  tren  funerario  does 
not  usually  include  it.  Such  an  establishment  merely 
sells  (or  rents. !)  coffins,  provides  hearses,  and  stands 
ready  to  take  more  or  less  complete  charge  of  the 
funeral  in  all  its  details.  Coffins  vary  in  elegance. 
There  are  plain  boxes  the  poor  buy,  and  carry  away  on 
their  shoulders,  receiving  reverence  in  lifted  hats  of 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  47 

men  and  signs  of  the  cross  made  by  women  in  all  the 
streets  along  which  they  pass.     Or  the  very  poorest 
may  hire  a  coffin  in  which  to  convey  the  dead  to  the 
grave,  where  the  body  is  taken  from  the  box  and  buried 
in  earth  without  any  protection,  the  coffin  being  duly 
returned  to  the  funeral  establishment  from  which  it 
was  engaged.     Nor  is  a  hearse  necessary  to  get  a  poor 
man^s  corpse  to  the  cemetery.     Sometimes  (especially 
if  it  is  small)  the  coffin  is  carried  on  the  shoulders  of 
mourners,  or  the  sanitary  department  will  provide  a 
wagon.     If  the  deceased  is  rich,  however,  he  buys  his 
lot  and  pays  his  dues  and  his  friends  fare  forth  and 
hire  him  not  only  one  hearse,  but  several  of  them. 
They  buy  him  dozens  and  scores  and  maybe  hundreds 
of  hideous  purple  and  white  funeral  wreaths  tied  with 
broad  bands  of  purple  ribbon  and  lettered  in  gold.     If 
he  is  prominent,  they  lay  him  in  ^^  burning  chapel,  ^^ 
that  is,  they  light  candles  around  the  coffin  and  mount 
guard  about  it.     Maybe  they  lay  him  in  his  place  of 
business  or  in  the  public  office  where  he  was  chief,  and 
let  the  people  file  by  and  gaze  upon  him  for  the  last 
time.     Maybe  they  bring  a  priest  there  and  have  him 
chant  responses,  or  they  stop  at  a  church  door  en  route, 
and  the  priest  comes  forth  to  perform  the  service  as 
all  stand  in  the  street.     The  body  may  not  be  taken 
into  the  church,  so  strong  now  is  the  reaction  against 
the  former  custom  of  burying  all  the  dead  under  the 
church  floors  or  in  the  church  walls.     I  shall  never  for- 
get the  interview  I  had  with  the  proprietor  of  a  very 
well-known    ^^ funeral    train ^'    (establishment).     ^^The 
cost  of  a  funeral,'^  said  he,  ^^ depends  upon  the  luxury 
of  the  display  made,  upon  the  financial  status  of  the 
family,  and  upon  the  affliction  the  survivors  feel.     I 
charged  $1000  the  other  day  for  a  funeral  I  would  have 


48  CUBA 

conducted  for  $500  if  the  persons  who  made  the  ar- 
rangements had  been  in  any  condition  to  bargain, 
which  they  were  not ;  I  took  advantage  of  the  situa- 
tion and  cleared  $800  on  the  deal.  One  charges  what 
one  can,  naturally,  for  customers  don't  die  but  once, 
and  we  must  make  the  most  of  every  opportunity.  If 
you  are  thinking  of  burying  anybody,  my  advice  to  you 
is  to  make  your  bargain  first,  and  stand  firm;  stand 
firm,  and  you'll  find  the  price  adjustable,  exactly  like 
the  price  of  all  other  things.  If  you  make  no  arrange- 
ments beforehand,  of  course  a  funeral  establishment 
will  charge  as  it  pleases,  and  when  the  affair  is  over  and 
done  with  the  bills  must  be  met.'' 

The  street  car  visitors  take  back  to  town  from  the 
cemetery  passes  along  Seventeenth  Street  in  Vedado  ,the 
handsomest  residence  avenue  in  this,  the  newest  and 
most  aristocratic  suburb.  From  a  block  above  the 
car  line  clear  to  the  sea  there  are  avenues  of  homes,  in 
beautiful  gardens,  the  most  attractive  of  which  combine 
American  comfort  with  local  styles  in  architecture 
which  assure  coolness.  It  is  here  that  the  majority  of 
the  American  colony  resides. 

There  are  other  suburbs,  all  of  them  worth  visiting 
by  street  car.  Out  Principe  way  are  the  Botanical 
Gardefis  and  the  Villa  of  the  Mills,  so  called  because 
once  there  were  tobacco  mills  in  this  vicinity.  The 
old  royal  ditch  {zanja  real)  which  used  to  supply 
Havana  with  water  flows  through  the  grounds.  This 
was  formerly  the  summer  residence  of  captains-general, 
but  was  made  later  a  public  school. 

The  car  line  into  Cerro  used  to  be  a  country  road,  as 
I  have  said.  Beyond  Palatino  now  a  highway  leads 
past  the  palace  Las  Delicias,  the  handsomest  private 
residence  in  the  island,  to  Vento,  where  the  waterworks 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  J  49 

attract.  Las  Delicias  is  the  home  of  a  wealthy  Cuban 
lady  who  commissioned  Cubans  best  painter  to  prepare 
panels  for  her  drawing-room  walls.  In  her  entry  are 
battle  scenes ;  in  one  (of  San  Juan  Hill)  the  figure  of 
Roosevelt  is  readily  recognized.  The  grounds  about 
this  place  are  exquisite. 

Like  Cerro  Calzada,  the  main  street  to  Jesus  del 
Monte  was  formerly  a  highway  among  farms  and 
country  places  occupying  land  now  solidly  built  up. 
Here,  when  Cuba  had  ^^ night  riders/'  some  centuries 
before  Kentucky's,  men  captured  in  a  pitched  battle 
at  Santiago  de  las  Vegas  were  strung  up  on  roadside 
trees  to  the  total  of  a  dozen ;  thereafter  growers  thought 
better  of  government  rulings  concerning  the  produc- 
tion and  sale  of  the  tobacco  crop. 

There  are,  in  conclusion,  countless  points  of  interest  in 
the  city ;  also  outside  of  it,  —  accessible  there  to  those 
persons  who  drive  cars.  There  is  Guanabacoa,  a  deca- 
dent summer  resort  across  the  bay,  and  Regla,  where 
pirates  used  to  rendezvous  and  one  built  a  palace,  on 
which  the  red  plaster  wouldn't  stick,  because,  or  so  the 
neighbors  surmised,  it  was  mixed  with  blood ;  they  have 
their  churches  and  their  miracle-working  images.  Coji- 
mar  has  its  pretentious  modern  hotel.  There  is  beach 
bathing  the  year  round  at  La  Playa,  below  Marianao,  and 
the  country  one  sees  in  driving  back  from  Marianao  via 
Puentes  Grandes  and  Cerro  is  exceptionally  beautiful  at 
sunset.  Guanajay  is  reached  by  electric  car,  and  from 
there  one  may  drive  to  ^^ Ruben's  Folly"  above  Mariel, 
obtaining  from  its  unfinished  balconies  a  panorama  of 
that  town,  its  harbor,  and  the  fertile,  cultivated  valley 
behind  it,  impossible  to  surpass.  One  may  take  a  motor- 
bus  from  Guanajay  to  Cabaiias  or  to  Artemisa,  or  one 
may  find  enjoyment  in  that  town  itself.   ^ 


50  CUBA 

Opposite  its  principal  cafe  (named  Niagara)  is  the 
plazaj  unusually  attractive,  it  seemed  to  me,  the  last 
time  I  saw  it ;  in  its  little  plots  of  soil  the  roses  bloom 
the  year  around.  Adjoining  the  cafe  building  is  the 
church ;  its  altars  are  curious,  and  I  have  since  heard 
regarding  one  of  the  trees  (any  one  !)  of  the  small  yard 
about  it,  the  best  legend  told  me  with  reference  to  any 
locality  in  Cuba.  In  the  shade  of  that  tree  one  must 
speak  the  truth,  because,  the  story  goes,  in  the  early 
years  when  Indian  chiefs  were  still  powerful  enough  to 
make  it  worth  the  Spaniards^  while  to  placate  them, 
the  daughter  of  a  cacique  of  a  Guanajay  tribe  was  robbed 
of  a  wonderful  necklace  of  pearls.  So  great  was  her 
father's  wrath  it  became  necessary  to  punish  some  one 
for  the  theft,  and  as  the  culprit  could  not  be  identified, 
they  picked  upon  a  young  man  who  by  some  unhappy 
circumstance  might  be  safely  charged  with  the  crime. 
He  was  condemned  to  die,  although  he  denied  his  guilt 
to  the  very  moment  of  execution.  A  priest,  mounted 
on  a  mule,  accompanied  him  to  death,  which  was  to  be 
inflicted  at  the  spot  where  the  church  stands  now. 
The  victim,  still  protesting  that  he  had  stolen  no  pearls, 
asked  for  ten  minutes'  final  grace,  and  it  was  granted. 
The  firing  squad  stood  close  at  hand,  and  especially 
near  was  the  officer  in  charge.  The  priest,  still  mounted 
upon  his  mule,  kept  by  the  prisoner,  and  he,  as  the 
minutes  speeded,  called  upon  Santiago  and  upon  Mary 
to  heed  his  plight.  The  padre^s  mule,  at  that  critical 
juncture,  snatched  at  a  single  leaf  drifting  down  from 
the  tree  in  shade  of  which  he  rested,  and  missed  it ; 
but  his  teeth  caught  in  the  doublet  of  the  officer  in 
charge  of  the  firing  squad,  ripped  it  open,  —  and  the 
missing  pearls  fell  to  the  ground  in  sight  of  all ! 

The  truest  points  of  interest  in  and  around  Havana 


THE    tourist's    HAVANA  51 

are,  indeed,  those  which  cannot  be  foretold,  nor  found 
twice  ahke,  since  they  are,  perhaps,  only  the  blue  of  a 
deep  shadow  there,  across  a  white  pavement ;  a  detail 
of  a  balcony's  construction,  in  a  certain  light ;  the 
pink  of  a  girFs  apron ;  the  laugh  of  a  chocolate-brown 
naked  baby,  grasping  through  window  bars  at  a  passing 
stranger's  clothes ;  in  short,  a  thousand  sights  and 
sounds,  trivial  in  themselves,  yet  cherished  strangely 
in  memory,  by  those  few  winter  visitors  (^^  ducks  of 
Florida ''  is  our  colloquial  Spanish  for  tourists)  who, 
as  they  wing  their  flight  from  spot  to  spot  at  a  guide's 
mandate,  have  an  eye  to  see,  an  ear  to  hear. 


^^^ 


CHAPTER  III 

DAYS   IN   HAVANA 

"  They  have  wooed  me  from  my  own." — From  "  Outlawed." 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  most  interest- 
ing Havana  exhibits  herself  not  often  to  those  who  seek 
her  en  passant,  but  continuously  to  those  of  us  who 
reside  here,  and,  without  desiring  to  observe,  or  con- 
sciously observing,  come  to  know  details  of  life  here  as 
one  learns  to  know  the  printed  characters  of  a  book  in  a 
foreign  language.  At  first  sight  they  are  strange  and 
meaningless ;  as  they  acquire  a  sense  to  us  they  lose  the 
oddity  we  do  not  see  again  unless  we  pause  to  consider 
them,  and  compare.  Then,  with  an  effort,  we  can 
observe  the  peculiarities  as  a  stranger  does,  realizing, 
further,  their  true  import,  as  he  cannot.  There  is 
nothing  more  refreshing  when  one  is  afflicted  with  the 
old-timer's  passionate  hate  of  Havana  and  all  her  works, 
as  on  occasions  we  all  are,  than  to  go  forth  into  the 
city  determined  to  behold  it  for  the  thousandth  time 
as  though  one  had  never  set  eyes  upon  it  before. 

Here  is  a  capital  over  which,  at  four-thirty  in  the 
morning,  the  deep,  resonant  bells  of  an  ancient  cathedral 
boom,  ponderous  and  mellow.  Already,  at  that  hour, 
boys  with  long  poles  are  shutting  off  the  gas  lamps  up 
and  down  the  narrow  streets  of  the  lower  cit^^  the  arc- 
lights  in  the  parks  and  on  the  promenades  have  sputtered 
their  last,  and  died.  /  Before  the  heavy  doors  of  all  the 
houses,!  their  giddy  colors  paled  in  the  twilight  of  dawn, 

52 


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DAYS    IN    HAVANA  53 

along  all  the  cobbled  streets, 'there  are  garbage  boxes 
and  barrels,  left  scattered  at  every  angle,  in  the  wake  of 
the  army  of  street  cleaners,  who  charge  through  the 
town  between  midnight  and  daybreak,  shouting  to  each 
other  and  from  gang  to  gang,  whooping  up  their  mules, 
banging  the  receptacles  they  empty  against  their 
carts,  and  otherwise  shattering  the  quietude  of  night 
and  the  nerves  of  all  save  hardened  inhabitants.  At 
half-past  four  there  are  few  pedestrians  in  sight  except 
policemen,  on  the  corners,  hooded  in  their  voluminous 
capaSy  —  cloaks  which  are,  I  believe,  the  last  vestige  of 
the  Roman  toga,  —  and,  chatting  with  them,  perhaps, 
a  night-watchman  carrying  a  heavy  cane,  and,  some- 
times, a  lantern. 

The  night-watchman  is  a  private  institution,  but  he 
is  reckoned  along  with  the  police  as  an  important  guar 
dian  of  this  city's  safety.  He  takes  under  his  care  a 
block,  say,  especially  in  the  commercial  districts,  and 
he  is  paid  pro  rata  by  the  establishments  it  shelters. 
At  Christmas  time  he  is  likely  to  present  a  card  to 
individual  residents  in  his  territory  who  have  not  made 
previous  arrangements  with  him,  on  which  is  printed 
a  verse  of  very  poor  poetry  explaining  how,  while  they 
sleep,  the  faithful  sereno  tramps  his  beat  in  cold  and 
storm  to  keep  off  thieves  and  fire  and  other  calamities 
likely  to  disturb  slumber,  on  considering  which  the 
reader  is,  of  course,  moved  to  contribute  toward  his 
support.  The  sereno  no  longer  shouts  the  hours 
(''Twelve  o'clock  and  all  serene  !'')  as  he  used  to  do, 
which  got  for  him  his  name,  but  he  carries  a  stout  stick, 
and  as  he  tramps  he  raps  with  it,  whack-whack-whack, 
upon  the  pavement.  Or,  occasionally,  hejalla^usleep 
with  it  laid  across  his  knees,  as  he  reclines  in  a  con- 
venient doorway,  or  he  holds  it  under  his  arm  as  he  sits 


54  CUBA 

in  a  chair  on  the  sidewalk  reading  by  the  hght  of  a  street 
lamp.  While  he  is  engrossed,  some  inhabitant  of  his 
block,  returning  home  in  the  dead  of  night,  and,  through 
some  oversight,  without  a  key.  to  his  lodgings,  is  sure 
to  look  in  vain  for  the  sereno,  who  is  provided  with  an 
arsenal  of  latch  keys  to  open  doors  for  just  such  prodi- 
gals. Incensed  at  delay,  the  belated  one  wakes  all  the 
hollow  echoes  with  indignant  thuds  of  the  knocker 
upon  his  door.  The  racket  brings  the  watchman  run- 
ning, —  or  it  doesn't,  as  the  case  may  be.  For  the 
service  he  renders  in  opening  doors  at  unconventional 
hours  the  sereno  is  not  averse  to  additional  tips.  Also, 
if  one  desires  to  wake  early,  it  is  possible  to  enlist  the 
assistance  of  the  night-watchman,  who  will  enter  a  house 
(on  his  beat)  and  arouse  a  sleeper,  at  request.  He  has 
access,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  his  honesty  is  accepted. 
He  is  the  custodian  not  only  of  property,  but  also, 
sometimes,  according  to  his  interpretation  of  his  duties, 
of  the  morals  of  his  block  as  well.  Varied  and  strange 
are  the  sights  he  sees,  and  discusses,  I  presume,  with 
porters  along  his  route  and  with  other  night-watchmen 
in  territory  adjoining.  When  events  which  are  beyond 
his  comprehension  transpire  in  his  neighborhood,  he  has 
been  known  to  suggest  that  explanation  would  be 
appreciated,  and  he  has  been  suspected  of  informing 
lodging-house  keepers  and  proprietors  in  general, 
within  his  precinct,  when  their  tenants  cease  to  merit 
his  respect. 

Before  the  gate  to  Caballeria  wharf,  at  half-past  four 
in  the  morning,  round-topped  country  carts,  packed, 
in  the  pineapple-shipping  season,  with  that  fruit  in 
crates,  are  in  line  awaiting  admission.  Just  inside 
the  gate  a  couple  of  square,  tightly  closed  market  carts 
stand  backed  close  against  the  wharf,  and  beyond  them, 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  55 

working  in  uncertain  lantern  light,  are  fishermen  weigh- 
ing out  to  them  the  catch  that  is  to  supply  Havana^ s 
tables  for  the  day.  They  have  towed  the  boat-shaped 
tanks,  in  which  they  keep  the  fish  alive  and  swimming 
until  wanted,  across  the  harbor  from  the  Casa  Blanca 
shore,  where  the  little  lights  sprinkled  over  the  hill 
under  Cabanas  never  burn  out.  On  davits  these  tanks 
are  lifted  partly  out  of  the  water  alongside  the  wharf, 
a  lantern  is  hung  to  shine  inside,  and  then  with  a  net 
the  imprisoned  fish  are  scooped  up  and  flung  to  flop 
and  flutter  on  the  planking  of  the  dock  until  a  man 
with  another  net  tosses  them  into  a  basket,  where  they 
continue  to  writhe  even  after  other  baskets  with  squirm- 
ing contents  are  crushed  on  top  of  them.  Five  or  six 
baskets,  full,  at  a  time  are  weighed,  and  carried  to  the 
waiting  carts.  The  fish  spring  even  from  the  carts,  and 
must  be  gathered  up  again,  sometimes  after  a  quieting 
kick  from  a  fisherman's  boot.  The  catch  is  sorted 
roughly  as  to  size.  The  biggest  are  the  handsome  pink 
pargo  (red  snapper),  which  die  quietly,  after  a  short 
struggle  and  many  long,  heart-breaking  gasps.  The 
other  varieties  fight  for  life  like  trained  gymnasts, 
with  countless  gyrations  and  a  continuous  swishing, 
slipping  sound  of  their  scaly  bodies  rubbing  against  each 
other.  When  they  leap  from  baskets  or  nets  and 
somersault  too  far  away,  the  men  in  charge  stamp 
suddenly  upon  their  heads,  and  thereafter  they  lie  still, 
in  that  one  spot.  If  there  be  a  tourist  present  to  cry 
out :  '^Poor  thing  !''  the  fishermen  jest  together  in  all 
the  provincial  tongues  of  Spain,  or  answer  in  Castilian  : 
^^What?  ^Poor  thing?'  Who  says  ^Alas,  the  little 
creature  ! '  when  he  beholds  that  fish  fried  for  break- 
fast?'' Policemen  stand  about,  chatting.  There  ar- 
rives a  customs  guard  coming  early  to  his  day's  work. 


66  CUBA 

Wharf  night-watchmen,  wrapped  in  their  long  blue 
cloaks,  pace  up  and  down  the  aisles  of  canvas-covered 
merchandise  piled  along  the  dock.  In  the  lighters  and 
the  barges  tied  here,  there  is  movement,  —  a  man 
stretching  lazily  into  his  shirt,  a  cook  fanning  his  red 
charcoal  fire,  a  long  row  of  stevedores  swinging  their 
legs  from  the  edge  of  a  lighter,  every  man  smoking  in 
silence.  Along  Muelle  de  Luz  tramps  and  beggars 
who  pass  the  night  there  begin  to  crawl  from  hiding. 

On  the  corners  cafes  open  early,  and  there,  by  the 
time  it  is  light,  the  first  patrons  sit  humped  up  over 
coffee,  their  coat  collars  turned  to  their  ears.  Street 
cars  pass  now  with  increasing  frequency,  their  motor- 
men  wearing  knitted  scarfs  around  their  throats  and 
mouths,  for  a  Cuban  seems  to  dread  fresh  air  as  a  cat 
dreads  water,  for  exactly  the  same  reason,  —  not  that 
it  harms  him,  but  because  he  is  unaccustomed  to  it. 
Serving  men  and  women  begin,  now,  to  drag  the  gar- 
bage boxes  indoors,  and  once  in  a  while  one  hears  shrill 
denunciation  because  there  is  no  garbage  box  to  drag, 
the  sanitary  having  carted  it  off  with  its  content. 

At  five-thirty  reveille  sounds  sweet  and  clear  from 
over  the  ramparts  of  Cabanas,  and,  gliding  like  a  ghost- 
ship  through  the  mists  that  blur  the  harbor,  there 
enters  some  big  transatlantic  steamer,  or  the  mail  boat 
from  Tampa  or  the  Ward  liner  from  New  York. 

The  sun,  rising  from  the  hills  beyond  Guanabacoa 
into  a  rose  and  pearl-tint  sky,  scatters  with  his  first  rays 
the  delicate  and  filmy  fog  that  dims  the  bay,  and  white- 
sailed  schooners  spread  all  canvas  and  make  away,  past 
Morro,  to  sea  and  off,  with  freshening  breeze.  The 
little  fishing  craft  that  loitered  all  night,  their  single 
lights  agleam  like  fireflies,  off  shore,  have  all  come  in 
and  tied  up  for  the  day  at  Casa  Blanca  and  Muelle  de 


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Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Panorama  of  Mariel 


DAYS    IN   HAVANA  57 

Luz.  From  the  railroad  yards  the  whistles  of  depart- 
ing trains  and  irritable  switch  engines  sound  shrilly. 
All  Havana  is  awake. 

Now  wholesale  shops  open  wide  their  great  street 
doors,  and  those  two-wheeled  carts,  drawn  by  sleek 
mules,  with  bells  and  tassels,  which  are  Havana's 
drays  and  trucks,  invade  the  lower  section  of  the  city  in 
numbers,  accompanied  by  noise.  The  retail  shops  roll 
up  the  corrugated-iron  shutters  that  have  protected 
their  windows  through  the  night,  and  clerks,  inside, 
remove  dust  cloths  from  counters  and  shelves,  in  prepa- 
ration for  the  day's  business. 

The  markets  have  been  astir  since  the  gleam  of  dawn.  * 
Their  stalls  are  made  inviting  as  may  be  with  fresh 
vegetables  displayed  in  large  shallow  baskets  ;  bananas 
in  bunches,  and  peppers  and  garlic  on  strings,  hang 
everywhere.  Strangers  in  Havana  insist  upon  visiting 
the  markets  ;  why  has  always  puzzled  me,  for  I  cannot 
conceive  that  any  one  save  those  obliged  to  enter  there 
to  pick  and  choose  what's  edible  would  care  to  endure 
the  stench  of  fowls  and  rotting  vegetable  matter  and 
meats,  and  the  sight  of  sick  cats  and  dogs  and  degraded 
humans  (the  loiterers)  who  haunt  the  corners  and  help 
the  plaza  reek.  The  cooks  of  the  city  have  a  regular 
matin  round  Df  argument  with  venders :  those  who 
buy  and  those  who  sell  berate  each  other,  brandishing 
fists  and  copper  pennies  and  paper  bags  and  meat 
cleavers,  while  here  and  there  an  American  housewife 
may  be  found  tripping  quietly  from  stall  to  stall,  de- 
manding from  each  his  best,  and  getting  it,  too,  because 
she  is  willing  to  pay  a  bit  extra  for  sound  potatoes,  the 
best  bread,  fruit  neither  green  nor  spoiling,  and  breasts 
of  chicken  in  preference  to  other  parts  (laid  out  on  the 
counter  already  cleaned  and  cut,  so  that  one  may  buy 


58  CUBA 

the  particular  pieces  liked  best).  Between  seven  and 
eight  o'clock  the  cooks,  satisfied,  scatter  in  every  direc- 
tion from  the  market  place,  balancing  upon  their  heads 
baskets  of  truck,  carrying  protesting  chickens  by  the 
feet,  or  by  a  rope  around  their  four  legs  lugging  suck- 
ling pigs  (especially  at  holiday  time),  who  go  to  the 
sacrifice  protesting  with  agonized  squeals. 

By  eight  o'clock  a  multitude  of  clerks  and  other 
minor  employees  throngs  the  cafes  about  Central  Park. 
To  them  come  galloping  down  Virtudes  Street  newsboys, 
who  at  the  head  of  Prado  are  joined  by  others  of  their 
tribe.  Together  they  raise  in  every  quarter  of  town 
cries  I  wish  I  could  indicate,  but  there  is  no  printing 
their  variations  on  ^^Mundo!  Traigo  el  Mundo ! 
Mundo  de  hoy!^^  which  changes,  instantly  to^^PoM 
Havana  Po'  !''  on  sight  of  an  American,  probable  cus- 
tomer for  the  English,  not  the  Spanish,  morning  paper. 

As  the  day  wears  on,  the  tumult  and  the  shouting 
increase  in  variety  and  volume.  Codies  —  there 
are,  in  Havana,  five  thousand  of  these  victorias  to  hire 
at  a  peseta  (twenty  cents,  Spanish)  the  usual  trip  — 
race  plunging  up  and  down  the  narrow  streets.  Pri- 
vate conveyances  and  government  carriages  follow 
with  more  dignity.  Automobiles,  —  smoking,  pant- 
ing, howling  through  their  siren  horns  like  devils  in 
pain,  —  burst  at  breakneck  pace  from  side  streets. 
Omnibuses  roar  along  their  routes,  dragged,  bounding, 
after  galloping  mules. 

Continually  I  am  reminded,  and  forcibly,  of  Martial 
and  his  sour  complaints.  I  never  duck  from  under 
a  dripping  balcony,  where  one  prefers  to  suppose  an 
overflowing  flower  pot  is  what  has  caused  a  sudden 
deluge,  that  I  do  not  sympathize  with  him.  Residents 
in  this  city  no  longer  toss  refuse  and  broken  crockery 


1 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  59 

from  upper  windows  into  the  street  (at  least,  not  when 
the  poUce  are  watching)  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is 
against  the  law  ;  they  used  formerly  to  be  less  consider- 
ate of  passers-by.  I  never  overhear  cart  drivers  quar- 
reling in  a  jam  on  Mercaderes  that  I  am  not  reminded 
of  his  version  of  similar  occurrences  in  ancient  Rome. 
I  never  dodge  a  guagua  (omnibus)  that  I  do  not  think 
of  his  story  of  the  little  Roman  slave  with  the  bath  oil 
and  the  towels  waiting  at  home,  while  his  master, 
knocked  out  of  ancient  history  in  a  street  accident,  sits 
cold  and  penniless  upon  the  banks  of  the  River  Styx, 
a  jest  for  Charon,  who  recognizes  no  passes  and  admits 
no  deadhead  passengers.  Along  toward  noon  one  sees 
delivery  boys  distributing  cantina  dinners,  strung  like 
white  buckets  (dozens  of  them  !)  on  poles,  sight  of 
which  would  make  intelligible  to  the  student  transla- 
tor other  lines  in  the  Satire  to  which  I  refer. 

Hand  organs  play,  —  selections  from  ^^Floradora,'' 
the  '^ Merry  Widow  Waltz,''  the  ^^Marseillaise,''  and 
songs  I've  heard  in  zarzuelas  (one-act  plays)  of  local 
popularity.  Street  venders  cry  their  wares.  Some 
arouse  parrots,  set  out  to  sun  on  balconies,  to  mock 
them  in  screaming  disapproval.  One  is,  as  I  write, 
ringing  a  cowbell  on  the  corner,  though  what  he  hopes 
to  dispose  of  by  means  of  that  performance  I  cannot 
judge  from  the  loud  monotone  yell  which  follows  now. 
I  heard  one  once,  singing  in  clear  tenor  to  the  effect 
that  a  ship  from  far  lands  had  just  dropped  anchor  in 
harbor  with  a  wonderful  cargo  of  silks  and  satins  and 
women's  gauds  aboard,  consigned  to  the  store,  —  now, 
I  can't  recall  what  store,  but  it  must  have  been 
''Spring  Time,"  or  ''The  Little  Marquis,"  or  "The 
Paris  Post,"  or  "The  Great  Lady."  In  Havana  the 
stores  have  names  of  their  own,  and  are  known  by  them 


60  CUBA 

rather  than  by  the  company  name  of  their  owners. 
There  are  small  boys  who  push  carts  and  chant  as  they 
go  a  declaration  of  their  desire  to  purchase  bottles, 
half -bottles,  and  demijohns.  Many  men  with  trays  of 
potted  plants  upon  their  heads  shout  out  the  single 
word,  ''  Flores!  ''  and  again  "  Flores!  ''  There  is  a  man 
who  leans  against  whatever  doorway  he  may  find 
open,  and  fills  the  house  with  earsplitting,  unintelli- 
gible clamor;  when  one  runs  down  to  chase  him  out 
one  finds  that  he  has  plantains  to  sell.  Another  fruit 
dealer  intones  slowly,  softly,  convincingly:  ^^ Oranges 
of  China !  They're  sweet  as  sirup !  Johnson  ba- 
nanas !''  One  knows  they  are  excellent.  Another,  sell- 
ing a  brown-skinned,  red-hearted  native  fruit,  shaped 
like  a  melon  with  the  taste  of  dewberries,  wails  sadly 
through  his  nose:  ''Colorado!  Colorado  el  ma'^ey !  ^^ 
There  are  two  who  herald  the  springtime  with  raucous 
cheer  and  good  tidings:  ^^ Melons!  Melons  of  Cas- 
tile !''  When  another  —  some  one  of  many  who  drive 
carts  roofed  over  with  bended  palm  leaves  tied  together 
at  the  tips  —  shouts  ^^ Mangos!  Mangos  and  man- 
gas!''  we  know  that  summer  has  come.  There  is, 
too,  the  man  who  sells  clothes  racks,  and  the  other  who 
deals  in  sponges;  one  peddles  tin  cups  and  another 
enameled  kitchen  and  bedroom  ware.  Another,  with 
a  whole  dry  goods  store  in  his  high-topped  cart,  lures 
the  ladies  with  announcement  of  ^^Fine  lace  and  linen 
edging!"  There  is  one  who  swallows  whole  syllables 
of  the  sentence  he  pronounces,  and  it  took  me  long  to 
decipher  that  he  offers  an  impossibility:  ^^ Fresh  eggs, 
eight  for  twenty  cents  !  For  twenty  cents  eight  of 
them!"  Between  twelve  and  two  o'clock  we  are 
offered  ^^Loo-oochay  y  Dizcoo-oo-sion  !"  as  the  after- 
noon papers  come  off  the  press.     The  tinkle  of  a  little 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Com pany  Photograph  by  American  Photo  Compatiy 

Street    Peddler,    selling  The    Bread    Man,     who    de- 
Tin    AND    OTHER    KiTCHEN  LIVERS  "  FlUKES  "  FROM  DoOR 

Ware  to  Door 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Street  Vendor,  Havana 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  61 

bell  precedes  the  hawker  of  wretched  ices,  selling  at  a 
cent  or  so  the  tiny  glassful.  The  sign  on  the  cart  he 
pushes  reads:  ^^ Purity,  2)^.''  There  is  a  blind  man 
who  blows  a  horn  as  he  peddles  matches  at  ^^Four 
boxes  for  five  cents  ! ''  Late  at  night  arrives  the  vender 
of  cracklings  and  fritters,  and,  last  of  all,  the  best  of 
all,  or  successor  to  him  who  was  so,  a  singer  from  whose 
cry  a  danzon  (native  dance)  was  written,  I  can  well 
believe,  for  he  used  to  offer  ^^  Peanuts  and  hot  chest- 
nuts !  ^'  to  a  measure  which  informed  one  musically 
that  his  name  was  Vicente,  and  made  further  references 
I  could  never  entirely  understand  to  the  teeth  of  his 
prospective  customers,  mentioned,  probably,  merely 
because  Vicente,  diente  (tooth)  and  caliente  (hot) 
rhyme  perfectly. 

Between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
Havana  begins  to  revive  from  the  lull  which  falls  at 
about  eleven,  for,  although  this  city  no  longer  frankly 
retires  to  sleep  the  siesta  as  she  ought  to  do,  she  does 
doze  dully  in  the  motionless  thick  heat  of  mid  of  day. 

After  three  one  sees  ladies,  ^^made  up''  as  none  are 
with  us  except  beyond  the  footlights,  venturing  forth 
in  twos  and  threes  to  the  streets  where  the  best  shops 
are.  This  is  the  hour  in  which  to  witness,  if  one  has 
eyes  and  humor  for  it,  a  whole  series  of  comic  occur- 
rences. Havana's  sidewalks  are  narrow,  and  their 
lack  of  width  gives  rise  to  some  local  customs  and  a 
deal  of  heartburning.  One  does  not  keep  hard  to  the 
right,  regardless,  in  approaching  another  person,  travel- 
ing along  the  narrow  flagging  in  the  opposite  direction. 
One  must  take  under  advisement  his  or  her  sex,  age, 
color,  and  present  condition  of  servitude  as  blazoned 
forth  for  all  to  read  in  the  details  of  personal  attire. 
Men  usually  give  women  the  inside  of  the  walk,  step- 


62  CUBA 

ping  down,  when  necessary,  to  let  them  pass.  CathoHc 
priests,  however,  especially  on  church  holidays,  if  one 
meets  them,  demand  the  whole  walk  along  which  to 
pursue  their  devout  way  to  church,  forgetting,  as  a 
certain  prelate  remembered  when  a  Mexican  friend  of 
mine  stepped  aside  to  give  him  preference  through  an 
open  door,  that  ^^  Madame,  I  was  a  gentleman  before 
I  became  a  priest !  '^  Also,  when  it  rains,  and  the  house 
walls  do  not  protect  from  the  shower  beyond  a  narrow 
margin  close  against  them,  I  have  observed  that  the 
majority  of  men  here  are  quite  willing  to  let  a  woman 
w^ho  happens  to  be  caught  in  the  storm  take  the  out- 
side and  get  wet  there,  as  their  courtesy  would  never 
permit  them  to  let  her  do  in  fair  weather,  when  she  has 
no  particular  need  of  their  consideration.  Serving 
people,  regardless  of  age  and  sex,  and  all  others  who  so 
humble  themselves  as  to  carry  packages,  are  expected 
to  yield  the  walks  to  their  superiors,  who  then  are  about 
everybody  they  meet.  Frequently,  of  course,  it  is 
difficult  to  make  in  the  flash  of  turning  a  corner  all  the 
nice  calculations  requisite  to  deciding  who  shall  have 
the  wall  and  who  shall  surrender  it.  I  know  of  nothing 
funnier  than  to  watch  two  fairly  well  dressed  and  corpu- 
lent Cuban  ladies  determining,  as  they  stand  tottering 
face  to  face,  on  a  foot-wide  flagging,  the  whole  delicate 
problem  of  their  relative  rank.  The  one  arrayed  in  the 
giddiest  garment  seems,  usually,  to  win.  If  there  is 
small  choice  in  color  and  cost  between  the  tight  pink 
costume  of  one  and  the  tight  blue  costume  of  the  other, 
the  one  with  the  straightest  hair  stands  fast,  and  the 
other  walks  around,  sometimes  with  grunts  and  com- 
ment sotto  voce.  Or,  all  details  seeming  equal,  they 
face  each  other  and  glare,  till  the  one  with  least  nerve 
wiltS;  swerves   into    an   adjacent    doorway,   and    the 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  63 

victorious  sweeps  by  with  up-tilted  chin  and  exultant 
petticoats. 

The  upper  blocks  of  Obispo  constitute  our  principal 
shopping  district.  Formerly,  when  no  real  lady  left 
her  domicile  save  in  her  carriage,  —  to  go  to  mass,  to 
a  friend^s  house,  to  ^Hake  the  air, ''  or,  possibly,  to  espe- 
cially favor  some  shop,  —  the  stores  along  this  street 
were  even  smaller,  dingier  than  now,  for  then  they  were 
hardly  more  than  warehouses,  from  which  clerks  car- 
ried to  the  best  customers,  in  their  residences,  goods 
from  which  to  make  selection,  or  if,  as  customs  relaxed, 
the  lady  came  in  person,  she  still  did  not  enter  the  build- 
ing, but  reclined  in  her  conveyance  at  the  curb,  while 
all  the  clerks  available  bestirred  themselves  to  bring 
forth  to  her  every  article  that  might  please.  Though 
usage  now  allows  the  Havanese  ladies  more  liberty, 
and,  in  exact  proportion  to  it,  the  liveliest  shops  have 
lighted  and  decorated  their  interiors,  enlarged  their  win- 
dows and  bought  glass  counters,  the  most  have  not  even 
yet  adequate  showcases  or  other  means  to  exhibit  the 
varied  and  beautiful  stuffs  they  carry  in  stock,  among 
which  are  the  very  finest  manufactures  of  all  the  earth, 
—  French  linens  and  embroideries,  Spanish  laces,  man- 
tillaSy  and  other  scarfs  ;  pineapple  cloth  of  fairy  weave 
and  gorgeous  pattern ;  filmy  organdies ;  fans  both 
French  and  Spanish  of  every  style,  size,  price,  and  design  ; 
pearl  buttons,  cheap  ;  Canary  Island  hand  embroidery 
and  Mexican  drawn  work ;  Italian  corals  and  Baracoa 
tortoise  shells,  carved ;  Toledo  steel  and  gold  work ; 
Parisian  millinery;  and  jewelry,  —  there  are  fortunes 
in  gems  in  any  one  of  half  a  dozen  windows  located  about 
midway  down  the  avenue  !  One  does  not  find  .goods 
of  this  quality  in  New  York  shops.  I  have  seen  on 
Fifth  Avenue  single  pieces  of  lace  and  a  blouse  or  a  gown 


64  CUBA 

or  two  which  approached  Obispo^s  average,  —  at  prices 
which  surpassed,  amazingly,  its  maximum.  Obispo  is, 
in  short,  a  veritable  paradise  for  the  woman  of  means 
and  taste  who  designs  and  makes,  or  superintends  the 
making  of,  her  own  clothes.  She  finds  here  everything 
necessary,  from  gold  and  silver  net  and  edging  of  metal- 
lic luster,  to  daintiest  transparent  ''bride's  linen''  and 
''real"  laces  to  suit  any  fancy,  for  the  putting  together 
of  countless  "dreams"  and  "creations"  and  "visions  of 
loveliness"  elaborately  adorned.  Obispo,  however, 
and  all  the  other  retail  streets  of  this  city,  are,  alas  !  the 
immeasurable  despair  of  the  other  woman  who  wants 
a  cheap  suit  quick.  What  its  Americanized  shops  offer 
in  the  shape  of  ready-to-wear  garments,  for  either  street 
or  house,  in  shoes,  corsets,  and  other  accoutrements  for 
which  reliance  must  be  placed  in  factories,  are  burlesques 
on  Broadway  styles  ! 

Havana  knows  nothing  of  bargain-day  rush.  One 
shrill  girl's  cry  of  "Cash  !"  or  a  really  competent  fore- 
lady's  mandate  of  "Forward,  please!"  would  carry 
consternation  Obispo's  full  length  and  fill  with  regret 
all  who,  hearing,  knew  the  frenzy  these  signs  portend. 
With  us,  as  yet,  every  one  has  time,  —  I  actually  believe 
it  passes  for  money,  because  I  know  that  many  who 
spend  the  first  lavishly  in  selecting  precisely  what  they 
want  do  not  pay  for  it  in  the  other  within  the  next  half 
year.  The  fact  that  a  sale  to  them  means  cash  ac- 
counts for  half  the  enthusiasm  with  which  every  store 
welcomes  Americans. 

Clerks  here  are  accustomed  to  see  Cuban  ladies, 
when  out  shopping,  arrive  leisurely,  somewhat  simply 
gowned  if  they  come  in  the  morning,  eleborately  ar- 
rayed if  they  come  in  the  afternoon,  when,  between 
three  and  five,  Obispo  Street  is  our  "Peacock  Alley." 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  65 

No  matter,  however,  what  hour,  they  come  cool,  per- 
fumed, painted,  powdered,  and,  I  am  convinced,  with- 
out any  set  notion  as  to  what  they  are  to  buy.  There 
are  chairs  provided  before  the  counter,  and  the  shopper 
sits.  She  goes  usually  to  her  favorite  store,  where  she 
has  long  been  a  marchante  (customer),  and  is,  therefore, 
entitled  to  definite  rights  and  privileges,  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  a  preference  for  a  certain  clerk,  which  the  others 
respect.  If  he  is  engaged  when  she  enters,  she  waits  until 
he  is  at  liberty.  It  is  not  unusual  for  him  to  leave  the 
customer  he  is  serving  to  inform  her  that  he  is  making 
haste  to  get  through  in  order  to  attend  her.  Other 
clerks,  idling  behind  the  counter,  recognize  her  as  Fulano 
de  TaFs  marchante^  and  make  no  effort  to  wait  upon  her 
unless  she  indicates  exceptional  haste.  One  may  then 
substitute  for  her  special  clerk  until  he  can  arrive  to  take 
charge.  When  her  clerk  comes  forward,  she  states  what 
she  wants.  This  is  by  no  means  to  say  that  she  will  get 
it.  If  the  thing  is  not  in  stock,  the  clerk  will  exhibit 
everything  else  there  is  in  hope  to  divert  her  choice. 
If,  however,  she  is  obdurate,  he  will  send  to  other  neigh- 
boring shops  to  see  if  they  can  supply  it.  When  pre- 
cisely what  the  clever  shopper  wants  is,  at  last,  laid  before 
her,  she  will  exhibit  no  elation  whatever.  She  asks  the 
price,  and  is  informed.  It  is,  of  course,  too  high  altogether. 
The  clerk  expostulates.  She  is  astounded  at  his  temerity. 
They  are  both  fully  pitched,  by  now,  in  a  cheerful  battle 
of  wits.  The  struggle  may  be  long,  but  the  outcome  is 
always  the  same.  As  a  special  favor  to  her  he  lowers  the 
figure.  She  condescends  to  take  the  goods,  but,  if  he 
has  not  met  her  offer  nearly,  she  remarks  significantly 
that  she'll  patronize  next  time  the  shop  next  door. 
The  clerk  retaliates  with  the  promise  that  at  Christ- 
mas time  marchantes  of  his  establishment  are  to  receive 


66  CUBA 

the  finest  presents  in  all  Havana.  I  understand  that 
sometimes  these  hohday  gifts  are  of  real  value,  but  all 
that  I  have  seen  displayed  were  atrocious  bisque  figures 
or  plush  picture  frames.  Meanwhile,  he  is  leisurely 
tying  up  the  parcel,  if  it  is  very  small  and  she  will  carry 
it  instead  of  having  it  sent ;  he  carefully  knots  the  cord 
into  a  handle  for  her  fingers  that  she  may  dandle  it 
daintily  and  not  lose  her  right  to  the  inside  of  the  side- 
walk because  of  its  bulk  or  weight.  If  when  she  comes 
to  pay  the  bill  she  is  unable  to  make  exact  change,  the 
clerk  overlooks  a  small  shortage,  saying  that  she  may 
pay  it  when  she  calls  again.  She  thanks  him  for  having 
waited  upon  her.  He  accompanies  her  to  the  door,  and 
bows  her  out. 

Shopping  in  Havana  is  a  game  to  which  strangers  are 
unequal.  The  leisurely  procedure  expected,  the  affa- 
bility with  which  a  clerk  will  offer  a  substitute  for  what's 
demanded,  and  finally  the  knowledge  that  the  first  price 
asked  is  not  what  one  is  expected  to  pay  for  any  article, 
all  baffle  and  irritate.  It  is  very  difficult  to  recognize 
the  solemn  moment  when  the  shopkeeper  has  un- 
covered his  lowest  figure  from  its  wrapping  of  persi- 
flage and  set  it  before  one,  fully  anticipating  that  it  will 
be  accepted,  now  that  he  has  at  least  approached  the 
correct  value.  If,  beyond  a  certain  point,  which  is  hard, 
as  I  have  said,  to  determine,  one  still  demands  reduction, 
the  shopkeeper  becomes  as  indignant  as  a  whist  player 
whose  ace  is  trumped.  He  is  likely  to  fold  up  his  mer- 
chandise then  and  there,  to  the  considerable  astonish- 
ment of  the  tourist,  for  instance,  who,  having  beaten 
him  down  from  $1.00  a  yard  to  75  cents  (''Only  for  you 
do  I  give  it  such  a  price  ! '')  cannot  understand  why  he  is 
angered  at  insistence  on  70  cents.  Long  as  I  have  been 
here,  I  can  give  no  formula  for  discovering  when  the  price 


BAYS    IN    HAVANA  67 

asked  approaches  what  the  salesman  expects  to  receive, 
excepting  this  one :  that  it  is  time  to  Stop  bartering 
when  he  becomes  sincerely,  not  feignedly,  ^'  mad^' 
about  it.  Or,  if  one  has  not  the  time  and  the  nerve  to 
spend  in  regateo  (this  system  of  bargaining  to  beat  down 
price),  then  one  does  as  most  Americans  do  :  one  pays 
what^s  asked  if  one  wants  the  article  badly  enough,  and 
seeks  revenge  in  condemning  the  government  and  high 
import  duties  ! 

Many  merchants,  however,  realizing  the  advantage 
of  reducing  shopping  to  a  business,  stripped  of  all  the 
finesse  of  the  duel  of  spirit  and  humor  it  used  to  be,  an- 
nounce ^^one  price  only,  ^^  and  I  believe  that  some  of 
them  enforce  the  rule,  though  there  are  other  shops 
where  the  clerks  assure  me  very  solemnly  that  the  first 
price  is  the  last  price  without  inspiring  in  me  any  con- 
fidence that  it  is  so  for  everybody. 

It  is  in  shopping,  in  addition  to  all  the  other  aggrava- 
tions, that  one  encounters  in  its  most  irritating  form 
the  problem  of  the  many  moneys  in  circulation  here. 
Cuba  has  no  coinage  of  her  own.  The  official  medium 
of  exchange  is  American  money,  in  which  the  govern- 
ment pays  salaries  and  exacts  contributions.  There 
are  in  circulation  nevertheless  French  gold,  and  Spanish 
gold,  silver,  and  copper  pieces  the  value  of  which  fluctu- 
ates, slightly  now,  from  day  to  day.  In  Oriente  Prov- 
ince as  far  west  as  Holguin,  only  American  money  is 
used.  Elsewhere  in  the  country,  as  in  Havana,  large 
transactions  are  conducted  usually  in  American  money 
or  French  or  Spanish  gold,  and  smaller  transactions  in 
Spanish  silver,  a  dollar  of  which  used  to  be  worth  very 
much  less  than  now.  I  can  recall  when  salary  paid  in 
American  money  looked  like  wealth  by  the  time  its  re- 
cipient had  calculated  it  in  Spanish  silver  at  the  rate 


68  CUBA 

of  $1.40  ^'bald-headed  money''  for  $1,  of  ''the  real 
thing/'  Spanish  silver  is  called  '' bald-headed"  or 
''monkey-money/'  —  the  first  name  referring  to  the 
fact  that  the  effigy  of  King  Alfonso  upon  the  coins  is, 
from  babyhood  to  manhood,  always  rather  scant  of  hair. 

At  five  o'clock,  when  the  government  offices  down 
around  the  Plaza  de  Armas  close,  releasing  clerks,  the 
tide  of  humanity  sets  up  Obispo  to  Central  Park,  the 
Prado,  and  Malecon.  Those  who  have  carriages  or  cars 
or  can  afford  to  hire  coches  or  taxicabs,  drive,  and  the 
rest  walk,  toward  the  sea  to  watch  the  sun  go  down  be- 
hind Vedado  in  a  blaze  of  glory  that  flares  to  the  zenith 
and  casts  its  reflections  in  soft  colors  to  the  east  whence 
night  advances,  creeping  up  from  behind  Morro  and 
Cabanas  as  retreating  day  cedes  place.  The  white  fire 
of  the  Castle's  lighthouse  appears  before  the  horizon 
it  faces  is  dark.  One  by  one  the  gas  jets  begin  to  glow 
in  Punta  Park  behind  the  prison.  With  a  hiss  and  sizzle 
the  long  lines  of  arc  lamps  on  Malecon  and  Prado 
struggle  into  a  glare.  In  the  heavens  the  moon  and 
stars  assume  their  places  in  a  sapphire  sky  before  the 
sun's  last  reflection  has  faded  from  the  scattered  clouds 
floating  there. 

In  the  dining  rooms  of  the  hotels  on  Central  Park, 
and  near  there,  tables  are  full,  and  just  outside  the  rail- 
ings of  their  open  windows  crowds  loiter,  to  gaze  with 
frank  interest  on  those  who  eat,  and  what  they  eat,  while 
they  are  eating  it.  Before  the  waiters  make  their  last 
scurrying  departure  with  soiled  small  cups  that  con- 
tained black  coffee,  gongs  in  the  entrances  of  neighbor- 
ing theaters  invite  attendance  at  the  moving-picture 
show,  vaudeville,  the  zarzuela,  Jai  Alai,  or,  if  it  be 
winter,  the  opera  at  the  National. 

One  does  well  to  disregard  their  summons,  save  on 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  69 

exceptional  occasions.  The  moving-picture  shows  of 
town,  which  have  saved  managers  from  the  necessity  of 
closing  their  houses  entirely,  while  sometimes  good, 
drop  frequently  into  brutality  and  nastiness.  The 
vaudeville  performances  are  without  merit,  except 
rarely  when  some  Spanish  girl  favors  us  with  wonderful 
dancing,  like  Oterita's.  The  zarzuelas,  at  home  in 
Albisu,  are  worth  seeing,  once,  for  they  are  written  of 
Spanish  life,  by  Spaniards,  and  acted  by  a  Spanish  com- 
pany to  an  audience  invariably  Spanish ;  here,  during 
the  Intervention  I  heard  the  American  flag  hissed,  as  it 
flashed  from  the  spotlight  upon  the  skirts  of  an  eccentric 
dancer  ;  there  were  American  army  officers  in  the  boxes 
who  leaped  to  their  feet,  and  the  demonstration  ceased. 
Lately  the  management  invested  in  some  stage  setting 
and  a  few  costumes,  and  rejuvenated,  in  small  part,  at 
least,  its  ancient,  faithful  chorus.  Pay  ret  is  gratefully 
remembered  for  one  or  two  rare  treats,  —  for  certain 
Italian  artists  who  have  appeared  there,  notably  the 
actress  Tina  di  Lorenzo  ;  and,  only  recently,  for  Calve 
and  Bonci.  The  National  (Tacon)  Theater  saw  Bern- 
hardt and  Rejane  flouted  in  such  a  manner  that  many 
an  amateur  dramatic  and  musical  society  must  needs  la- 
bor hard  to  remove  the  stigma  of  the  reception  accorded 
to  these  artists  and  to  all  the  other  truly  great  ones  who 
have  condescended  to  come  to  Havana.  Patti  and 
Tetrazzini  sang  at  the  National,  the  latter  very  shortly 
before  she  was  heralded  elsewhere  as  a  star  of  magnitude. 
Every  winter  opera  companies,  either  Spanish  or  Italian, 
appear  for  a  ^^ season.'^  ^^Fashionable  nights''  find  the 
boxes  full,  and  it  is  the  custom  to  consider  the  perform- 
ances good,  which  occasionally  they  are,  despite  a 
stage  of  Elizabethan  barrenness,  and  costumes  (of  all 
save  the  particular  leading  light,  if  there  is  one)  which 


70  CUBA 

seem  to  have  been  made  about  that  same  period.  The 
interior  of  the  National  consists  of  five  horseshoe-shaped 
tiers  of  boxes  (barren  stalls,  with  a  half  dozen  hard- 
bottomed  chairs  within  each  inclosure),  rising  one 
above  the  other  about  the  pit,  from  which  the  seats 
may  be  removed,  converting  it  then  into  a  large  floor, 
where,  on  occasions,  banquets  are  served.  They  con- 
stitute spectacles  viewed  by  onlookers  filling  the  boxes 
as  audience.  It  is  here,  too,  during  carnival  season  that 
public  masked  balls  are  given.  They  are  reckoned  very 
wicked,  and  Americans  go  in  crowds  (in  box  parties)  in- 
tent to  see  the  siglits.  What  they  behold  is  a  mob  of 
shapeless  gibbering  dominoes  (not  a  short  skirt,  not  a 
bare  neck,  not  an  itiidraped  arm  !)  who  dance  round  and 
round,  each  couple  occupying  very  little  floor  space,  to 
the  measure  of  ^Hropical  waltzes'^  and  danzones  brayed 
forth  by  bands  in  the  proscenium  boxes.  Dust,  noise, 
stale  perfume,  and  smell  of  cigarettes  make  the  air 
fairly  putrid.  The  men  upon  the  floor  (they  do  not 
mask)  are  obviously  as  low  in  the  average  as  humanity 
drops  even  in  Havana.  They  are  approximately  white ; 
on  the  other  hand,  where  gloves  part  from  sleeves,  or  the 
cotton  lace  on  masks  flies  aside,  one  discovers  that  the 
women  are,  mostly,  mulattoes  and  blacks.  In  con- 
trast to  them,  all  swathed  as  they  are  in  formless, 
cheap,  gaudy-colored  ''mother  hubbards,''  there  passes 
now  and  then  the  handsome  figure  of  a  well-dressed 
woman  with  face  unmasked,  —  sonie  demimondaine  too 
notorious  to  assume  disguise.  I  remember  particularly 
one  beauty  who  carried  royally  a  modest  organdie 
gown,  in  color  magenta  and  black,  and  another  gentler 
and  younger,  seated  in  a  box,  who  wore  her  hair 
parted  and  combed  low  over  her  ears ;  there  was  a 
velvet  band  across  her  forehead  fastening  there  a  sin- 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  71 

gle  paste  jewel.  As  for  the  rest,  —  the  shrilhng  domi- 
noes, —  they  are  the  laundresses,  the  scullery  maids, 
the  milliners'  and  modistes'  apprentice  girls,  as  well 
as  the  denizens  of  abysses  these  skirt  when  they  ^Hake 
their  fling''  at  carnival  balls.  Across  the  Park  from 
the  National  is  Polyteama.  It  is  an  attempt  at  a  roof 
garden,  vaudeville  and  opera,  grouped  upon  the  flat 
top  of  the  Gomez  Block.  Its  opera  house,  the  Grand, 
was  opened  last  season  with  great  eclat  by  Nordica 
and  other  singers  of  merit ;  that  same  stage  is  occupied 
now  by  a  local  stock  company,  —  actors  from  the 
Alhambra,  which  is  enlarging  its  own  building,  —  to 
whose  performances  women  are  not  admitted. 

All  in  all,  when  the  gongs  clang  one  had  very  much 
better  let  them  clamor  unregarded,  and  turn  instead  to 
the  parks  and  the  Prado  and  the  long  sea  wall  where 
the  finest  show  of  all  is  on.  Some  of  its  best  scenes  are 
enacted  in  the  side  streets,  where  the  hand  organs  grind 
late,  to  audiences  leaning  from  the  balconies  above. 
Nursemaids  sit  in  the  open  doorways.  Children  play  in 
the  streets.  Young  blades,  twirling  tender  mustaches, 
pass  and  repass  the  windows  from  which  the  girls  that 
they  admire  lean  out. 

In  some  of  these  homes  there  may  be  dancing ;  then 
a  crowd  of  spectators  gathers  around  the  street  windows 
and  looks  on,  applauding  the  music  and  the  couples  on 
the  floor.  Or  a  ball  at  the  Spanish  Casino,  or  at  the 
Centro  Asturiano,  may  have  attracted  all  the  young 
people  there,  where  to  good  music,  despite  heat  and  a 
crowded  floor,  they  enjoy  themselves  in  waltzing,  in 
flirting,  in  making  earnest  love,  in  secluded  nooks  and 
on  balconies,  each  pair  utterly  oblivious  of  everything 
save  itself.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  affair  is  given  at 
the  Clerks  of  Commerce  Club  house.     The  upper  floor 


72  CUBA 

of  that  building  is  an  immense  ballroom,  which,  when 
it  is  Ughted  from  end  to  end,  as  it  was  on  the  evening 
of  the  farewell  reception  to  Governor  Magoon,  and 
filled  with  a  brilhant  throng ;  or  when,  as  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  tea  in  honor  of  General  and  Mrs.  Leonard 
Wood,  the  dechning  sun  brightens  all  its  pastel  tints 
and  the  no  more  delicate  gowns  of  a  crowd  of  women 
promenading,  is  not,  I  think,  equaled  in  beauty  by 
any  large  salon  in  all  the  United  States  of  America. 
Practically  every  periodical  pubhshed  here,  including 
even  commercial  and  political  sheets,  labor  organs  and  lit- 
erary weeklies  and  monthlies,  makes  room  in  its  columns 
for  personal  notes  under  various  captions, — -^^  Social 
Havana,'^  ^ ^Elegancies,''  ^^The  Social  Day,' ^  ^^Elegant 
Chronicle,"  etc.,  etc.  Here  appear  items  somewhat 
similar  to  those  admitted  to  the  ''social  pages"  of  cer- 
tain American  daily  papers,  but,  objectionable  at  their 
best,  they  take  on,  in  the  Cuban  press,  a  tone  disagree- 
ably intimate  and  personal.  For  instance,  during  a 
teachers'  institute  (for  their  records  are  by  no  means  con- 
fined  to  events  rightfully  considered  ''social")  a  certain 
susceptible  nobleman  (such  was  his  rank  according  to 
his  nom  de  plume)  ^  who  was  scribe  at  the  time  for  a  paper 
professedly  and  practically  political  only,  favored  a 
session  with  his  presence,  and  there  discovered  "an  en- 
chanting group"  of  some  thirty  especially  simpaticas 
senoritas,  whom  he  proceeded  to  enumerate  with  itali- 
cized accent  on  their  first  names,  which  were  printed  with 
tender  diminutives  in  ita  and  cita;  among  the  thirty 
were  a  pair  of  "enchanting  little  sisters,"  and  a  couple 
of  "angelical  beings,"  to  say  nothing  of  a  "divine 
trinity,  whose  angelical  features  transported  the  sweet 
illusions  [of  that  society  reporter]  to  the  eternal  regions, 
as  prayers  in  temples  fly  to  confound  themselves  with 


BATS    IN   HAVANA  73 

the  rhythm  of  the  universe  in  the  bosom  of  eternity." 
I  am  translating  from  the  item,  and  this  is  only  a  fair 
sample.  These  columns  are  piping  with  impertinent 
^  ^  notes  of  lo ve.  ^ '  Their  readers  know  the  instant  ^  ^  a  cor- 
rect gentleman/'  —  every  suitor  is  a  perfectly  ^^  correct 
gentleman/'  —  makes  up  his  mind  ^Ho  ask  the  hand  in 
marriage''  of  some  ^^sympathetic  young  lady"  from  her 
^^distinguished  father"  and  her  ^'respectable  mother." 
They  also  chronicle  births  (the  writer  invariably  sends 
a  kiss  to  the  newborn),  christenings  (under  the  stand- 
ing caption  of  ^'One  Christian  More"),  and  also 
deaths,  —  if  the  deceased  is  a  baby  the  heading 
reads  ^^ Another  Angel."  I  have  found  that  these 
writers  do  not  apply  their  stock  phrases  haphazard, 
but  according  to  a  secret  significance  inherent  in  the 
worn  words  ;  I  used  to  know  the  code,  which  enabled  me 
to  gather  the  reporters'  veiled  notion  of  the  appearance 
and  social  rating  of  the  persons  mentioned,  but  of  it  I 
remember  now  only  that  if  they  say  she  is  a  'labo- 
rious" young  woman  you  are  to  know  that  she's  the 
rather  homely  honest  daughter  of  parents  in  modest 
circumstances.  These  particular  newspaper  men  are  in 
their  glory  when  some  one  of  the  many  important  clubs 
in  town  gives  a  ball,  for  they  attend  and  dance  like 
marionettes  with  the  prettiest  girls  in  sight,  whose  names, 
in  recompense,  head  a  column-long  list  of  ''those  pre- 
sent" when  in  the  afternoon  edition  of  the  next  day 
they  are  set  apart  from  the  following  throng  in  a  para- 
graph "lead"  ebullient  with  admiration  for  their  per- 
sonal loveliness  and  the  elegance  of  their  gowns. 
Neither,  I  hear  it  alleged,  do  the  reporters  fail  to  do  a 
little  business  amid  pleasure ;  it  is  understood,  in  some 
instances  at  least,  that  if  the  restauranteur  who  serves 
the  buffet  wants  its  excellence  mentioned,  he  will  do 


74  CUBA 

well  not  only  to  see  that  the  gentlemen  of  the  press 
sample  it  early  and  often,  but  also  that  their  strength  is 
further  maintained  by  a  free  dinner  at  his  establish- 
ment now  and  then,  at  the  very  least. 

At  nine  o'clock  a  single  gun  fired  from  Cabafias 
fortress  shakes  all  the  city  with  its  jar.  As  though  set 
a-j  angle  by  the  shock,  all  the  clocks  and  church  bells 
sound  the  hour.  Every  possessor  of  a  watch,  no  matter 
where  he  may  be  at  the  signal,  brings  it  forth  and  winds 
it  up.  The  busiest  of  the  retail  shops  now  drops  its 
shutters  with  a  bang.  Down  in  the  wholesale  districts 
clerks  in  doorways  enter  with  determination  upon  the 
night's  last  game  of  dominoes.  There  is  a  further  ces- 
sation in  noise,  for  which,  perhaps,  an  American  seated 
upon  his  roof  top,  in  the  moonlight,  is  extraordinarily 
grateful.  When  from  across  the  street  a  fairly  good 
voice,  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  guitar,  sings  ^^La 
Paloma,''  he  gazes  with  refreshed  appreciation  at  the 
mise  en  scene  and  reflects  that  the  girl  opposite,  now 
leaning  languidly  from  her  parapet,  her  garments  trail- 
ing white,  and,  perhaps,  a  little  live  firefly  entangled  like 
an  active  diamond  in  her  hair,  might  seem  to  him  the 
final  requisite  of  real  romance  had  he  not  seen  her  that 
very  morning,  soiled  and  uncombed,  berating  some 
incompetent  menial,  doubtless,  who  remained  dis- 
creetly in  the  background  during  the  tirade.  As  he 
looks  closer  he  distinguishes  the  glowing  tip  of  a  cigar- 
ette at  which  she  puffs. 

If  he,  on  his  side  of  the  street,  which  is  between  them, 
smokes  long  enough,  she  and  others  on  roofs  and  bal- 
conies all  about  him  disappear  group  by  group  and  one 
by  one.  From  Cabanas  he  may  hear  the  bugles  calling 
taps.  Lights  in  windows  in  the  single  top  rooms  on  the 
roofs  which  are  called ''lookouts,' 'where  servants  sleep, 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  75 

go  dim  or  vanish.  Cats  —  black  silhouettes  —  make 
their  appearance  now  on  parapets  and  railings,  de- 
scending by  devious  ways  to  rummage  through  the  gar- 
bage boxes  which,  set  out  after  ten  o'clock,  begin  im- 
mediately to  make  their  presence  perceptible  to  his  nose. 
At  eleven,  maybe,  he  hears  the  regular  tramp  of  police 
from  the  station  setting  out  to  relieve  those  on  duty 
during  the  first  half  of  the  night.  Perhaps  as  he  dozes 
there  sounds  a  sudden  cry  through  all  the  silent  street, 
and  the  patter  of  flying  feet :  ^'  Ultima  hora  !  A  la  ul- 
tima hora! ''  and  he,  having  hissed  from  his  roof  to  detain 
the  boy  below,  descends  in  haste  to  the  street  door  to  buy 
for  a  penny  or  two  some  newspaper's  '^ extra"  announc- 
ing calamity,  —  a  political  assassination,  or  an  explosion, 
say.  Or,  again  having  retired  to  sleep,  he  may  be 
awakened  by  the  sound  of  blows  and  choked  cries  :  the 
Spaniard  on  the  corner  beating  his  wife  again  !  May- 
hap he  may  hear  the  police  pound  upon  the  door,  de- 
manding and  getting  admission.  He  may  hear  the 
husband's  tearful  protests,  —  she  is  his  wife,  you  under- 
stand. Presently  cocks  in  patios  begin  to  crow.  The 
first  morning  street  car  comes  up  the  avenue  as  the 
garbage  carts  go  down.  Cafe  doors  open,  and  Havana 
has  taken  up  the  round  of  her  day's  existence  once  more. 
Ordinarily  the  sun  shines,  intensely,  with  a  brilliancy 
that  blinds.  From  mid-October  until  late  April  the 
days  follow  each  other  like  gold  beads  on  a  string,  alter- 
nated with  solid  silver  nights,  —  every  twenty-four 
hours  a  cycle  of  perfect  summer  weather.  Toward  the 
first  of  May  piled  clouds  ride  thicker  in  the  sky,  and,  of 
afternoons,  quick  rains  blow  up.  Out  in  the  provinces 
the  farmers  thank  God  for  the  beginning  of  ^'the  wet 
season."  When  it  rains  it  pours,  in  floods,  till  cataracts 
spout  from  the  rain  troughs,  filling  all  the  narrow  city 


76  CUBA 

streets.  Then  O'Reilly  and  Obispo  and  parallel  avenues 
run  rivers  that  cover  the  sidewalks  in  low  places  and 
invade  shops  despite  their  board  barricades.  Cathedral 
Square  becomes  a  lake  where  Uttle  pickaninnies  splash 
to  their  armpits.  ''Coaches''  that  must  navigate  it 
seem  to  float,  the  water  sweeping  through  their  bodies  ; 
''fares"  lift  their  feet  to  the  seats.  In  shops  along 
San  Ignacio  between  Chorro  and  O'Reilly  employees 
and  patrons  climb  to  the  tables  and  sit  marooned  until 
the  inundation  subsides.  Fifteen  minutes  after  the 
downpour  has  ceased  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  "high 
water"  except,  perhaps,  the  expostulations  of  some 
porter  angrily  sweeping  silt  from  his  courtyard. 

Or  again  for  days  sharp  twirling  gusts  of  wind  annoy 
the  city.  Then  Belen  Observatory  may  issue  a  warning 
to  shipping  to  keep  within  port  and  the  newspapers 
publish  tiny  "extras"  as  large  as  a  sheet  of  note  paper, 
which  are  distributed  to  the  city  by  urchins  screaming 
like  Apaches  :  ''El  ciclon !  El  ciclon ! ' '  Then,  if  it  is  not 
a  false  alarm,  a  drizzling  rain  sets  in  and  the  downfall 
and  the  wind  together  increase  hour  by  hour  in  violence. 
In  my  time  two  of  these  hurricanes  have  passed  over  the 
city.  I  had  the  rare  luck  to  be  outdoors  in  the  height  of 
the  storm  of  1906,  which  reached  its  maximum  at  mid- 
night, and  I  shall  not  forget  to  my  dying  day  how  the 
wind  howled  up  and  down  the  narrow  streets,  how  the 
rain  twisted  and  whirled,  driven  by  winds  that  blew  from 
every  quarter  at  one  and  the  same  time ;  how  crossed 
live  wires  illumined  all  the  scene  with  hellish  glare,  and 
as  we  fought  our  way  thigh-deep  in  water  pouring  in  a 
torrent  down  O'Reilly  we  heard  tiles  and  bits  of  crum- 
bling mortar  hurtling  from  the  housetops  into  the  street 
we  navigated.  The  "voice "  of  this  hurricane's  "  thun- 
dering roar"  was  deafening  indeed :  we  could  not  hear 


DATS    IN    HAVANA  77 

ourselves  speak,  nor  could  we  see  our  hands  before  our 
faces.  Northern  nature  never  knows  passion  such  as 
this  was.  Next  morning  we  awoke  to  find  the  sunlight 
fresh  and  clear,  and  with  all  the  rest  of  the  town  we  went 
out  to  view  the  wreckage.  Every  tree  in  the  Plaza 
de  Armas  lay  flat,  prostrated  with  leafy  top  toward  the 
Palace.  Those  on  the  Prado  looked  as  the  toy  trees  of 
a  child's  Noah's  Ark  look  when  the  baby  lays  them 
lengthwise  with  one  sweep  of  his  open  hand.  Cornices, 
turrets,  balconies,  and  the  top  stories  of  some  buildings 
had  been  blown  in.  Awnings,  signs,  kiosks  were  scat- 
tered far  and  wide  ;  the  Daily  Telegraph^ s  bulletin  board, 
for  instance,  was  found  three  blocks  up  hill  on  a  street 
parallel  to  that  on  which  the  office  stood.  In  places 
alongshore  the  sea  had  flooded  out  families.  Count- 
less lighters  and  small  craft  went  down  in  the  bay,  but 
the  American  battleships  at  anchor  there  rode  out  the 
hurricane  bravely.  When  the  first  newspapers  came 
out  we  learned  how,  at  Camp  Columbia,  troops  of  the 
American  Army  of  Pacification,  caught  unprepared,  had 
sat  on  their  dog  tents  and  other  belongings  all  night, 
through  that  terrific  tempest,  singing  as  loud  as  their 
lungs  would  let  them .  All  in  all,  loss  of  life  and  property 
in  Havana  was  small.  Out  in  the  country  banana 
groves  lay  supine  ;  tobacco  seedlings  were  destroyed  ; 
sugar  cane  was  damaged.  Tobacco  barns  and  houses 
and  huts  alike  went  down,  and,  later,  there  was  suffer- 
ing. 

Again,  the  variation  in  Havana's  routine  existence 
may  be  of  another  nature.  How  well  I  remember  the 
day,  during  ^^The  Little  War  of  August"  (1906),  that 
Morro  sent  up  the  flag  that  reads  ''American  warship 
sighted.''  The  news  spread  as  though  by  magic,  and 
down  all  the  streets  to  the  water  front  Americans  came 


78  CUBA 

hurrying,  wearing,  to  the  last  man,  a  widespread  grin. 
The  Valdez  rampart  where  I  happened  to  be  was  packed 
with  people,  and  never  before  or  since  on  native  faces 
have  I  seen  looks  as  black  as  theirs,  as  without  a  mur- 
mur of  comment  they  watched  that  cruiser  enter,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  whipped  taut  at  her  stern,  her  deck 
cleared  for  action,  and  there,  in  a  long  line,  her  blue- 
jackets assembled  to  land  on  the  instant,  with  the  little 
field  gun  they  later  dragged  to  the  lawn  under  Fuerza 
when  they  made  their  camp  beneath  its  ancient  walls. 
I  remember  how  we  walked  down  to  see  them  there,  — 
we  walked  in  twos  at  most,  for  martial  law  had  been 
declared,  and  three  persons  then  constituted  ^'a  gather- 
ing,'^ prohibited.  I  recall  a  later  night,  when  it  was 
rumored  that  the  police,  armed  with  rifles  on  the  cor- 
ners, would  rise  and  join  Loynaz'  rebels,  carrying  coal 
oil  and  torches,  as  they  advanced  into  Havana  from  out 
La  Lisa  way,  these  same  bluejackets  in  pairs  patrolled 
the  town,  tramping  all  night  long  up  and  down  its 
black  and  silent  avenues.  Their  white  uniforms  con- 
stituted an  excellent  target  for  stray  shots,  in  the  omi- 
nous loneliness  of  a  strange  city,  and  they  knew  it,  but 
their  step  was  not  the  less  firm  and  resounding  on  that 
account. 

There  have  been  other  days  when  Cabafias^  guns 
sounded  monotonously  every  half  hour  from  six  to  six, 
to  remind  the  city  of  her  illustrious  dead,  lying  in  state 
in  her  halls  of  congress  or  in  her  presidential  palace 
on  the  Plaza.  Then  black  bands  drape  the  balconies, 
and  the  flags  fly  low.  I  had  a  position  overlooking 
Central  Park  when  they  carried  the  Generalisimo 
Maximo  Gomez  to  his  grave,  and  from  there  I  saw  the 
funeral  cortege  make  its  way  with  difficulty  through  the 
soUd  mass  of  people  fiUing  all  that  square.     The  coffin 


DAYS    IN    HAVANA  79 

rode  on  a  gun  carriage.  Many  hearses  bearing  flowers, 
both  natural  and  artificial,  —  in  wreaths  flying  purple 
streamers,  in  bouquets,  and  in  more  formal  designs,  — 
followed  at  a  considerable  distance  down  the  line. 
Government  officials,  —  President  Palma,  congress, 
the  diplomatic  and  consular  corps,  —  on  foot,  marched 
immediately  behind  the  caisson  bearing  the  body,  and 
upon  them  I  saw  the  people  charge,  with  mutterings 
like  a  turbulent  sea,  demanding  that  they  be  permitted, 
as  they  had  been  promised,  to  bear  their  general  upon 
their  shoulders  to  his  last  rest.  I  saw  the  police  and 
rural  guards  beat  them  back,  fighting,  amid  scenes  of 
riotous  disorder,  to  cut  a  passage  for  the  procession  on 
its  way. 

Or  perhaps  it  is  a  holiday,  —  say  a  Carnival  Sunday. 
Then  gay  buntings  brighten  the  balconies,  and,  here 
and  there,  in  perfect  conformity  to  Martial  again, 
long  palm  leaves  are  tied  to  the  doorposts.  By  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  there  is  squawking  and  squall- 
ing of  tin  horns  in  every  quarter,  and  carriages  envel- 
oped in  bright  cambric  and  adorned  with  paper  flowers 
carry  girls  in  fancy  dress  toward  Prado  and  Malecon. 
They  have  powdered  their  hair,  and  black  masks  hide 
the  upper  halves  of  their  rouged  and  patched  faces. 
On  such  a  day  as  this  the  drives  are  overcrowded  with 
conveyances,  some  few  beautifully  decorated,  and  all 
these  the  police  endeavor  to  keep  moving  rapidly  in 
good  order.  The  walks  are  filled  with  people  of  every 
class,  color,  and  condition,  all  in  the  very  best  attire 
their  wardrobes  can  supply.  Especially  pretty  are  the 
little  children,  some  in  the  gay  costumes  they  wear  to 
the  ^ infantile  balls''  all  the  regional  societies  give  on 
the  afternoons  of  the  four  Sundays  of  Carnival.  All 
the  balconies  along  the  driveways  are  occupied  with 


80  CUBA 

hilarious  parties  of  young  people  who  throw  bright 
paper  ribbons,  twisting  and  twirling  downwards,  to 
acquaintances  they  recognize,  and  to  other  persons 
they  admire,  or  do  not  admire,  as  the  case  may  be,  in 
the  carriages  and  upon  the  walks.  These  return  the 
compliment  in  kind,  as  far  as  they  are  able.  Young  men 
stand  up  in  automobiles  and  hurl  their  serpentinas  high 
or  shoot  them  far,  from  springs  made  for  the  purpose. 
The  tiny  paper  streamers  fill  the  air.  They  fringe  all 
the  balconies  and  housetops,  and  flutter  like  multitudi- 
nous pennants  from  telegraph  poles.  The  streets  are 
carpeted  with  confetti,  —  a  particolored  snow  of  diminu- 
tive round  papers  the  merrymakers  scatter  with  a  free 
hand.  There  is  music  and  laughter  and  freedom  from 
restraint,  which,  toward  sunset,  pass  the  bounds  of 
decorum,  for  then  street  urchins  along  the  routes  the 
carriages  must  follow  begin  to  gather  up  trampled 
serpentinas  from  the  street  to  hurl  in  hard  balls  into  the 
open  victorias.  They  wrap  pebbles  in  the  papers,  and 
pelt  the  occupants  of  carriages  in  the  face.  At  the  turn 
by  the  Miramar,  below  the  Ateneo,  and  in  front  of  the 
Inglaterra,  half-grown  boys  and  men  push  close  against 
the  line,  passing  slowly,  and  freely  commeht  upon  the 
personal  peculiarities  and  dress  of  those  driving  past, 
who,  not  infrequently,  repay  them  with  a  lash  of  the 
whip.  The  animation  is  at  its  height  at  sunset,  and  it 
dies  away  with  the  daylight.  As  the  hghts  come  on 
the  carriages  scatter,  driving  off  up  the  side  streets, 
home.  Meanwhile  along  Malecon  and  even  well  up 
on  Prado,  where  the  bright  papers  thrown  have  rolled 
into  bundles  as  big  as  a  man's  body,  in  the  wind,  small 
boys  set  fire  to  them,  and  in  the  dancing  light  of  their 
conflagration  frightened  horses  prance,  adding  confusion 
to  the  jam  at  the  head  of  Prado  when  the  parade  breaks. 


DATS    IN    HAVANA  81 

Gay  as  this  Carnival  drive  is  to  those  who  have  not 
seen  better,  it  is  a  poor  enough  survival  of  other 
days.  The  equipages  are  little  if  any  finer  than  those 
one  sees  any  Sunday  afternoon  along  the  water  front 
boulevard.  Handsome  fancy  costumes  are  scarce 
indeed.  There  have  been  attempts  to  make  the  Car- 
nival more  than  it  is.  Money  was  spent  one  sea- 
son recently  to  import  features  which  at  their  best 
appeared  forced  and  unnatural  here.  Meanwhile,  cer- 
tain other  spontaneous  expressions  of  our  own  Carni- 
val spirit  (negro  bands  that  danced  in  grotesque  cos- 
tumes through  the  streets)  led  to  brawls  and  a  killing, 
and  were  vigorously  condemned  by  those  who  under- 
stood the  full  depth  of  meaning  that  lay  behind  what 
was  to  foreigners  only  half  barbaric  revelry.  This 
year,  because  of  lack  of  funds  and  also  for  lack  of  all 
inclination  to  make  merry  in  the  face  of  her  present 
situation,  Havana  had  no  carnival  at  all.  There  were 
not  even  any  illuminations,  as  there  have  been  in  pre- 
vious seasons,  when  thousands  of  tiny  colored  electric 
light  globes,  strung  from  Punta  to  La  India  Park 
made  all  the  promenades  between  seem  fairyland. 
Then  golden  apples  grew  on  the  palms  of  Central  Park, 
and  the  laurels  of  the  Prado  bore  a  crop  of  lights  of 
national  colors. 

Equal  with  the  illuminations,  to  my  notion,  in  point 
of  interest  to  see  and  to  share,  is  the  sunset  hour,  in 
Carnival  time,  on  the  terrace  of  the  Miramar,  when  well- 
dressed  people,  of  every  nationality,  sitting  very  prop- 
erly at  their  tables  over  refreshments,  begin  to  buy, 
rather  shamefacedly,  from  peddling  boys  the  serpen- 
Unas  and  confetti  these  offer  persistently.  Unexpect- 
edly, some  gentleman  taking  careful  aim  at  a  distant 
lady  whose   appearance   for   any  reason  whatsoever 


82  CUBA 

catches  his  eye,  drops  into  her  lap  a  twisting  paper 
circle.  If  she  be  an  American  unaccustomed  to  this 
levity,  she  will  cast  it  aside  with  hardly  a  side  glance  at 
a  stranger  who  has  so  presumed ;  but  if  she  be  of  any 
other  nationality,  she  will  throw  another  back  at  him 
with  a  smile.  At  another  table  some  little  old  lady, 
having  adjusted  her  spectacles  with  care,  has  hurled  a 
similar  bit  of  her  ammunition  at  a  tableful  of  Germans 
on  the  sidewalk.  Perhaps  she  strikes  a  Frenchman  four 
tables  removed.  Within  fifteen  minutes  every  one 
present  is  throwing  as  fast  as  may  be,  and  any  person 
who  shows  annoyance  is  target  for  the  combined  atten- 
tions of  all.  One  is  literally  woven  into  one's  chair. 
The  waiters  remove  empty  cups  and  glasses  as  rapidly 
as  they  can,  to  avoid  breakage.  They  tear  their  way 
through  papers  from  table  to  table,  defending  them- 
selves from  the  unwinding  missiles  as  they  go.  Laughter 
accompanies  the  bombardment.  There  are  exclama- 
tions of  chagrin  and  approval  in  every  modern  lan- 
guage. Spaniards  and  Cubans  murmur,  '^Vaya!^^ 
Americans  shout,  ^^Take  that!''  The  English,  look- 
ing very  tolerant,  aim  with  great  solemnity.  Germans 
fish  the  papers  out  of  their  beer  with  guttural  good 
nature,  and  the  Frenchman  who  throws  bows  to  the 
lady  he  manages  to  hit.  It  is  all  very  bright  and  very 
well-mannered  and  jolly,  and  the  tourist  who  happens 
in  upon  it  at  its  best  considers  ^  that  he  has,  at  last, 
'^his  money's  worth." 


CHAPTER  IV 

Arroz  con  Frijoles^ 

Despite  those  worse  than  crimes  —  the  blunders 
—  committed  in  that  name,  there  is  no  Cuban  people. 
The  island  of  Cuba,  has,  however,  a  populatlohloTaboul 
2,048,980  persons,  —  ''natives,''  Spaniards,  who  con- 
stitute the  largest  foreign  element,  Chinese,  Americans, 
British,  French,  Germans,  etc.,  down  the  entire  list  of 
present-day  nationalities. 

''  Native&^_-7-  that  is,  Cubans,  —  are  negroid.  Some 
''pass  for  white,''  as  the  illuminative  colloquial  expres- 
sion has  it.  Some,  possibly,  are  white ;  few,  however, 
would  care  to  submit  their  lineage  to  scrutiny  close 
enough  to  prove  it.  Only  Americans  think  any  the 
less  of  the  Cuban  because  he  is,  if  not  colored,  at  least 
tinted. 

The  aborigines  of  Cuba  were  Indians^  —  naked, 
timid  red  folk  who  fled  at  first  sight  of  white  men,  but 
returned  cautiously  to  look  closer  at  the  marvels  of 
ships,  clothing,  and,  especially,  horses  and  firearms. 
They  were  attracted  by  gifts  of  beads  and  red  cloth. 
They  particularly  prized  objects  made  of  metal,  above 
all  brass,  which  they  seemed  to  think  possessed  divine 
attributes.  These  aborigines  lived  in  thatched  huts, 
isolated  on  hilltops,  or  clustered  into  towns  around  a 

1  White  rice  and  black  beans,  —  a  popular  dish,  known  also  as 
"Moors  and  Christians,"  or,  in  Havana,  as  "Firemen,"  —  i.e.  a  vari- 
colored company. 

83 


84  CUBA 

central  square.  Their  residences  must  have  resembled 
closely  the  bohios  common  throughout  Cuba  to-day, 
though  students  of  these  matters  assert  that  the  Indian 
constructed  his  hut  more  skillfully  and  furnished,  it 
more  artistically  than  the  country  Cuban  of  the  pres- 
ent year  of  grace.  Their  beds  were  hammocks  ;  both 
the  name  and  the  article  are  of  West  Indian  origin. 
They  had  carved  chairs,  but  almost  no  other  furniture. 
They  lived  largely  on  fish,  which  they  captured  in  nets 
or  traps,  or  speared  with  weapons  having  shell  or  bone 
points;  bone  fishhooks  have  been  found.  They  are 
said  to  have  used,  too,  the  eel-like  remora  in  fishing ; 
the  remora^  attached  to  a  cord  held  by  the  fisherman, 
was  permitted  to  glide  through  the  water  and  fasten 
itself  to  a  fish  or  turtle  by  a  dorsal  sucker,  after  which 
the  fisherman  drew  it  back  with  its  prey,  which  he 
appropriated  to  himself.  The  Indians  also  had  com- 
munal hunts,  in  which  a  definite  geographical  area  was 
surrounded  and  the  game  therein,  driven  together  by 
the  use  of  fire,  captured  or  killed.  The  Indians  very 
rarely  killed  animals  except  for  food.  They  had  pet 
^'dogs,''  domesticated  hutias  (an  indigenous  animal  of 
the  rat  family)  and  tame  ducks.  They  made  cazabi 
bread  from  the  yuca  plant's  roots,  and  they  liked  pine- 
apples and  peppers.  Their  utensils  were  of  baked 
clay,  roughly  hewn  stone,  or  wood.  Their  religion  is 
known  as  ^^zemism.''  They  had  medicine  men  and 
believed  in  spirits.  They  burned  tobacco  as  incense, 
that  is,  sought  to  waft  their  prayers  upward  in  its 
smoke ;  the  priests  also  used  the  narcotic  to  induce 
inspiration.  There  were  idols  of  stone,  wood,  and 
cloth,  of  which  the  Indians  understood  the  manufac- 
ture. They  wore  no  clothes ;  they  had,  however, 
necklaces,  girdles7  arTd  heM  ornaments  of  stone,  gold, 


ARROZ    CON    FRIJOLES  85 

pebbles,  and  feathers.  The  aborgines  had  no  beasts  of 
burden ;  they  were  themselves  tireless  runners  and 
marvelous  swimmers.  They  traveled  the  coasts  of 
the  island  in  canoes,  and  even  ventured  to  cross  to  the 
neighboring  Antilles,  and,  possibly,  to  the  mainland,  in 
those  fragile  vessels.  They  spoke  a  language  which 
seems  to  have  prevailed  in  all  the  Indies  alike ;  little  is 
now  known  concerning  it,  yet  many  traces  of  it  run 
through  the  Spanish  current  here,  —  for  instance,  the 
names  of  fruits  and  woods,  geographical  names,  and 
many  other  words  such  as  bohio,  hatey,  and  almost  all 
that  contain  the  syllable  gua.  Even  English  has 
drawn  on  this  lost  language  for  ^^ hurricane,^'  from 
huracan;  ^^  canoe, '^  from  canoa;  ^^  hammock,  ^^  from 
hamaca.  The  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Cuba  were  not 
a  forceful  or  a  belligerent  people.  There  was  little 
with  which  to  contend :  the  climate  offered  no  hard- 
ships, and  there  were  no  venomous  snakes  nor  any 
large  quadrupeds.  The  only  reptile  worth  a  second 
glance  was  a  big  constrictor,  the  maja,  whose  vicious 
appearance  and  marked  reluctance  to  live  up  to  it 
have  made  his  name  synonymous  to  this  day  with  blus- 
tering coward.  The  largest  creature  on  four  feet  was, 
probably,  of  the  bear  family,  easily  domesticated, 
resembling,  then,  a  dog,  excepting  that  it  never  barked, 
which  greatly  puzzled  the  Spaniards,  who  beat  it  a  bit, 
one  historian  relates,  to  see  if  it  wouldn't  find  voice, 
whereupon  it  moaned  in  a  disappointing  undertone. 
The  ^^mute  dog''  could,  however,  howl,  some  writers 
have  recorded.  Next  in  size  came  the  hutiay  still 
plentiful  in  the  country  and  still  eaten  by  country  folk, 
who  also,  by  the  way,  sometimes  eat  the  handsome 
flesh  of  the  maja,  though  they  confess  it  shamefacedly. 
There  was  also  a  small  ant-eater  which  is  rapidly  fol- 


86  CUBA 

lowing  the  doggish  bear  (deemed  edible,  too,  in  his  day, 
especially  by  starving  Conquerors)  into  extinction.  The 
natives  of  Cuba  were  organized  into  tribes,  and,  appar- 
ently, into  geographical  divisions.  They  fought  among 
themselves,  using  the  customary  arms  of  Indian  war- 
fare, —  bows  and  wooden  arrows,  hardened  in  fire,  stone 
hatchets,  which  were  neither  very  large  nor  very  danger- 
ous, nor  of  much  avail  against  the  swords,  arquebuses, 
pikes,  and  cottonpad  armor  of  the  Christians.  Whether 
the  original  population  of  Cuba  was  one  race  or  more 
is  a  question  on  which  authorities  have  not  agreed. 
Indians  the  Spaniards  found  in  these  islands  and  on 
the  neighboring  mainland  are  usually  divided  into  three 
races :  Caribes,  who  were  warriors  and  cannibals, 
found  especially  in  the  Lesser  Antilles  and  originating, 
probably,  in  South  America ;  Lucayos,  a  humble  peo- 
ple at  home  in  the  Barbadoes ;  and  Siboneyes,  a  quiet 
fishing  and  agricultural  people  who  lived  on  the  larger 
isles  of  the  Indies,  inhabiting  part  if  not  all  of  Cuba. 
The  Lucayos  frequented  these  shores.  The  Caribes 
at  least  invaded  this  country  (and  left  some  skulls 
here),  if  they  did  not  establish  permanent  residence. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Indian  blood  is  evident,  to 
this  day,  in  the  natives  of  some  isolated  districts  of 
Cuba,  and  very  old  families  in  both  Pinar  del  Rio  and 
Santiago  claim  a  red  strain.  I  recall  meeting  on  the 
road  into  Palma  Soriano,  in  Oriente,  a  lad  very  like 
peones  I  knew  near  Tlaxco  in  the  state  of  Tlaxcla, 
Mexico.  I  have  heard  of  an  Indian  village  near 
Baracoa.  Resemblance  to  Indians,  however,  no  matter 
how  marked,  would  in  itself  constitute  no  evidence  that 
any  aboriginal  blood  has  been  preserved  in  ^^ natives^' 
of  to-day,  because  Indian  slaves  were  imported  into 
Cuba  from  Yucatan  in  droves  within  very  recent  years, 


ARBOZ    CON    FRIJ0LE8 


e 


and  doubtless  they  contributed  progeny  to  the  popu- 
lation. 

It  does  not  seem  at  all  likely,  to  me,  that  the  present-  ' 
day  Cuban  retains  even  a  corpuscle  of  aboriginal  red. 
No  one  who  reads  how  the  Indian  women  in  the  years 
immediately  following  the  Conquest  committed  infan- 
ticide and  suicide  by  drinking  a  deadly  concoction 
obtained  from  the  root  of  the  bitter  yuca,  rather  than 
be  slaves  and  mothers  of  half-breed  slaves,  can  enter- 
tain the  opinion  that  much  of  that  noble,  simple  people 
exists  in  its  successors  on  this  soil.  The  Indian  men, 
meanwhile,  died  off  of  overwork  and  underfeeding,  in 
the  mines  and  on  the  plantations  of  their  Christian 
masters.  A  plague  of  smallpox  swept  the  isles  and  the 
mainland  as  well.  As  early  as  the  year  1523  the  Span- 
iards complained  there  were  no  Indians  left  to  do  the 
work.  Importation  of  African  slaves  at  once  began. 
The  slave  trade  was  legal  until  1870 ;  it  was  not  effec- 
tively suppressed  even  then.  Black  slavery  was  abol- 
ished in  Cuba  only  in  1886 ;  it  existed,  in  fact,  much 
later.  ,  '/^ 

Cubans  of  to-day  are  descendants  of  S^p^nkh  mRsfprs  M^ 
and  negro  slaves      While  some  of  them,  especially  in 
the  cities,  are  all  that  such  parentage  implies,  others, 
particularly  in  the  provinces,   are   admirable.     They 
respect  themselves,  and  are  respectable. 

In  many  instances,  especially  in  remoter  regions  of 
the  island,  the  admixtion  is  too  thorough  for  analysis :  I 
the  countryman  of  Cuba  is  not  necessarily  a  negro,  a 
mulatto,  a  quadroon,  or  even  an  octoroon,  though  he 
may  be  any  one,  but  he  is,  invariably,  I  should  say, 
negroid.  I  recall  a  group  of  guajiros,  —  tobacco 
planters,  we  fancied,  —  whom  we  particularly  admired 
as  we  saw  them  on  the  deck  of  the  little  steamer  that 


88  CUBA 

travels  over  Cienfuegos  Bay.     They  were  of  medium 
/    size,  supple  and  graceful,  with  clear  skins  of  a  warm 
1    brown  no  darker  than  any  Anglo-Saxon's  might  become 
\    in  the  course  of  long  exposure  to  tropical  sun.     Their 
eyes  and  their  hair  were  brown,  not  black ;    its  wave 
I   was  by  no  means  a  kink.     There  was,  in  this  particular 
/   group,  not  a  feature  distinctively  African.     Yet  the 
/    black  blood  was  there,  though  it  showed  in  nothing 
\    save  a  certain  voluptuousness  of  build,  and  an  obviously 
\   cheerful  outlook  on  life  in  general,  evident  in  the  fel- 
lows' happy  manner,  in  their  pleasantries,  in  the  air  of 
I    careless   optimism  with  which   they  regarded   them- 
I    selves,  each  other,  and  all  the  world.     Their  faces  were 
lean,  without  any  particularly  brutal  or  vicious  tenden- 
cies apparent ;  they  showed  instead  an  unusual  amount 
of    inborn    and    well-intentioned    intelligence.     These 
men  were  Cubans  indeed,  and  they  constitute  the  class 
the  country  need  be  proud  of.     If  ever  there  is  a  Cuban 
people,  it  will  come  into  existence  when  such  as  they 
awake  to  the  fact  that  they  are  citizens,  and  not  sub- 
jects any  longer. 

If  one  asked  a  countryman  of  this  type  if  he  were 
part  black,  far  from  resenting  the  question  (unless  he 
thought  discourtesy  were  intended),  he  would  in  all 
probability  undertake  to  answer  it  accurately.  I  heard 
this  very  point  discussed,  recently,  with  a  man  whose 
family  owned  a  certain  plantation  in  Pinar  del  Rio 
Province  for  a  hundred  years  prior  to  its  sale  to  an 
American  land  company.  ''My  family,''  he  said,  '4s 
reckoned  as  white,  but,"  he  added  whimsically,  "they 
do  say  that  my  grandmother  had  the  not  very  nice 
hair.  Who  knows,  now,  but  what  it  was  too  curly?" 
He  shrugged  his  shoulders,  spread  his  hands,  and  care- 
lessly twirled  his  cigarette,  to  indicate  that  he,  personally, 


ARROZ    CON    FBIJOLES  89 

was  little  concerned  as  to  that  detail.  He  considered 
himself,  as  indeed  he  was,  none  the  less  a  gentleman 
because  of  a  'Houch  of  the  tar  brush/' 

I  shall  not  forget  a  particular  experience  of  my  own 
in  this  regard.  I  came  to  Cuba  with  every  prejudice 
we  Americans  are  accustomed  to  entertain  against 
blacks,  and  especially  against  mixed  breeds ;  tome,  then, 
a  single  drop  of  black  blood  was  worse  than  a  whole 
bucketful.  I  made,  presently,  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  a  notable  family.  I  met  the  patriarchal  head  of 
that  house,  —  distinguished  in  a  learned  calling,  —  as 
kindly,  courteous,  and  keen  an  old  man  as  one  is  privi- 
leged to  find  extant.  I  met  the  sons,  —  half  a  dozen  or 
so  of  them,  —  each  the  able  head  of  a  profession  or 
business  of  his  own,  masters  of  two  or  three  languages 
each,  graduates  of  foreign  universities,  cultured  and 
clever,  fathers  of  whole  broods  of  healthy,  intelligent 
children ;  I  agreed  with  the  rest  of  Havana  that  here 
was  a  family  exceptional  individually  and  collectively. 
I  was  told,  then,  that  while  they  ^^ passed  for  white'' 
so  successfully  that  Cuba's  most  particular  circles  were 
honored  by  their  presence  upon  any  occasion,  it  was 
generally  known  '^ among  Cubans"  (another  enlight- 
ening phrase,  by  the  way)  that  the  ^Har  brush"  had 
touched  the  escutcheon,  nevertheless.  I  denied  it  indig- 
nantly. I  swore  by  the  yellow  heads  and  the  blue  eyes 
of  the  third  and  the  fourth  generation  that  the  insinua- 
tion was  monstrously  false.  I  was  informed,  by  way 
of  rejoinder,  that  my  friends  were  not  so  hot  in  their 
own  defense,  —  at  least,  not  among  intimates.  About 
that  time  I  met  the  women  of  the  family.  They  were 
handsome,  —  these  sisters  of  the  men  I  knew,  —  but 
in  the  very  beauty  of  their  eyes  and  hair  lay  evidence  of 
the  truth.     I  was  reduced  to  quandary.     My  friends 


90  CUBA 

were  not  less,  in  any  respect,  now  that  I  knew ;  they 
had  lost  nothing,  merely  because  I  was  informed,  of 
the  real  worth  I  had  recognized.  I  am  glad  to  say  that 
my  regard  for  them,  one  and  all,  was  stronger  than 
prejudice.  I  revised  my  views.  I  then,  in  short, 
drew  near  to  the  Cuban  attitude  of  mind  on  the  ''color 
question.''  As  long  as  a  person  I  like  ''passes  for 
white''  I  insist  on  no  investigation.  If,  now,  a  person 
I  do  not  find  simpatico  (sympathetic)  should  attempt  as 
much,  I  might  be  quite  capable  of  spreading  the  news, 
behind  my  fan,  that  his  grandmother  had,  forsooth, 
"the  not  very  nice  hair"  ! 

I  have  not,  in  long  years'  residence  in  Cuba,  been  able 
to  discover  on  what  except  appearances  Cubans  base 
the  distinction  they  draw  in  favor  of  those  persons 
who  "pass  for  white."  Nor  are  they  especially  exact- 
ing, always,  even  in  this  regard.  Once  an  individual 
has  been  admitted  within  the  pale,  no  matter  what 
evidence  his  eyes,  hair,  lips,  nose,  and  complexion  may 
afford  discriminating  observers,  it  is  all  refuted  in  that 
one  sentence  (the  open  sesame  of  Cuba  !)  :  "He  passes 
for  white"  ! 

There  is,  so  far,  little  bitter  feeling  in  Cuba  concern- 
ing matters  of  "color."^  Indeed,  Cubans  will  explain, 
how  can  there  be,  when  no  man  dare  set  himself  above 
another  because  he,  truly,  is  white,  lest  some  country 
cousin,  or  an  even  nearer,  dearer  relative  thrust  a  woolly 
head  through  the  door  to  disprove  his  claims  to  such 
superiority  ? 

Northern  magazines  publish,  now  and  then,  pitiful 

1  Some  Americans  and  also  some  Cubans  insist  that  feeling  here  is 
more  bitter  than  it  is  in  the  north,  but  I  cannot  discover  any  evidence 
of  this.  On  the  other  hand  I  see  mulattoes,  whites,  and  blacks  in 
friendly  and  close  relations  everywhere. 


ARROZ   CON  FRIJOLES  91 

stories  illustrating  crises  which  arise  when  North 
American  prejudices  against  mixed  blood  meet  Latin- 
American  tolerance  of  conditions  for  which  there  is, 
now,  no  remedy ;  no  fiction  can  equal  the  facts.  Ha- 
vana knows,  or  used  to  know,  of  one  American  who 
married  as  dainty  a  Cuban  senorita  as  ever  attracted 
special  attention  on  the  Prado  because  her  hair  was 
golden  and  her  eyes  were  wonderfully  blue.  Their 
children  are  unmistakably  mulattoes.  One  American 
tells  of  a  stinging  rebuke  a  Cuban  administered  once 
to  him.  The  Cuban  in  question  was  a  young  man, 
educated  in  the  United  States,  where  he  had  resided 
for  long  years,  during  which  period  he  had  taken  on 
American  ideas  with  American  training,  and  also,  alas 
for  him,  not  a  few  American  prejudices.  His  asso- 
ciates in  Havana  were  all  Americans.  He  never, 
however,  invited  them  to  his  home.  Once,  when  he 
fell  sick,  they  went,  quite  unsuspecting  that  they 
might  not  be  welcome.  His  mother  admitted  them  to 
his  room;  they  met  his  sisters.  '^ Jorge,''  the  Ameri- 
can who  tells  the  experience  said  to  him  later,  ventur- 
ing far  on  the  firm  basis  of  long  friendship,  '^why  don't 
you  cut  loose,  go  north,  be  an  American,  as  in  fact  you 
are,  get  married  up  there  and  forget  .  .  ."  ^^Yes?" 
the  Cuban  interrupted,  ^^and  do  you  think  it  would  be 
quite  fair  to  your  American  girl?" 

Restrictions  enforced  against  those  persons  who  do 
not  ^^pass  for  white"  are  upheld  with  much  tact  and 
little  friction.  There  are  clubs,  cafes,  restaurants, 
hotels,  etc.,  to  which  those  who  are  considered  ^^colored" 
are  not  admitted.  No  placards  proclaim  the  prohibi- 
tion, however,  nor,  in  case  he  makes  a  mistake  in  enter- 
ing, is  the  unwelcome  patron  needlessly  offended.  They 
tell,  in  this  connection,  that,  on  one  occasion,  a  negro 


92  CUBA 

politician  of  considerable  wealth  and  influence  entered 
the  dining  hall  of  a  certain  hotel  and  seated  himself 
at  table,  evidently  expecting  to  be  served.  This 
was  a  house  which  caters  only  to  the  elect,  yet,  such  was 
the  prominence  of  the  man  awaiting  attention,  no 
employee  made  bold  to  request  him  to  depart.  The 
proprietress  was  summoned.  She  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  women  in  Cuba,  —  a  figure  almost  national. 
The  negro  was  an  acquaintance  of  hers,  and  instantly 
she  hit  upon  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  She  went  to 
him,  greeted  him  with  the  customary  handshake,  and, 
making  use  of  the  friendly  abbreviation  of  his  first 
name,  she  said,  so  the  story  goes:  '^Friend  Fulanito, 
you  know  that  in  my  business  I  am  obliged  to  make 
certain  rules  which  do  not  permit  my  waiters  to  serve 
you  here.  To  show  you,  however,  that  it  is  because  of 
business  only  that  these  rules  exist,  I  have  the  honor 
to  invite  you  to  dine  with  me,  in  my  private  dining 
room  yonder,  as  my  very  welcome  guest.''  They  say 
the  negro  arose  and  thanked  her.  ^^Doiia  Zutana,'' 
said  he,  '^I  appreciate  your  courtesy.  I  will  not  em- 
barrass you  by  accepting  your  kind  invitation.  I  go, 
but  now  and  hereafter,  count  me  among  your  sincerest 
friends."  The  ability  with  which  this  Spanish  woman 
overcame  a  difficult  situation  is  in  marked  contrast  to 
methods  employed,  this  past  winter,  by  an  American 
hotel,  which  has  been  fined  repeatedly  for  charging  ne- 
groes exorbitant  prices  for  drinks  they  insist  upon 
ordering  over  its  bar,  and  then,  when  they  have  set 
them  down,  accidentally  breaking  the  glasses  they  used. 
I  had  occasion  to  meet,  more  than  once,  the  lately 
deceased  Senator  Martin  Morua  Delgado,  one  of  the 
republic's  two  most  prominent  negroes.  He  held  high 
position  under  the  Palma  administration,  and  contrib- 


AEEOZ    CON    FRIJ0LE8  93 

uted  no  small  part  to  its  overthrow.  It  is  said  that 
the  senator's  enmity  toward  that  regime  was  strength- 
ened by  the  fact  that  President  Palma  pointedly  denied 
Mrs.  Morua  recognition  which  would  have  been  ac- 
corded her  as  her  due,  because  of  her  husband's  position, 
had  she  been  white  instead  of  black.  Senator  Morua 
was  a  mulatto,  but  he  ranked  himself  as  a  negro.  I 
have  entered  within  his  home ;  I  found  there  every 
indication  of  good  taste,  education,  and  refinement.  I 
thought  the  more  of  the  man  because  the  wife,  moving 
quietly  about  her  business  in  the  adjoining  room,  was 
very  black  indeed,  and  the  crop  of  children  who  romped 
through  the  hall  were  pickaninnies.  In  public  speeches 
Senator  Morua  stated,  more  than  once,  that  although 
the  Cuban  negro  insists  upon  political  equality  in  the 
republic  (with  reason  on  his  side,  since  blacks  consti- 
tuted the  majority  of  the  armies  who  fought  for  Free 
Cuba),  he  does  not  expect  to  be  accorded  social  equality. 
To  reconcile  this  with  the  senator's  resentment  against 
Palma,  it  was  not  to  Mr.  Palma's  private  parties 
Morua  demanded  that  his  wife  be  admitted,  but  to 
state  functions,  —  balls  and  dinners  on  public  occa- 
sions when  the  president's  official  family  were  expected 
by  right  of  office,  —  for  then,  he  insisted,  the  palace 
was  indeed  not  a  private  residence,  but  the  executive 
mansion,  and  not  Mr.  Palma,  but  the  president  of 
Cuba,  received.  And  who  shall  say  that  he  was  not 
right  ?  Under  Gomez,  Morua  became  president  of  the 
senate,  and,  very  shortly  before  his  death,  secretary  of 
agriculture,  the  first  negro  to  hold  a  cabinet  office. 
His  wife  attended  official  functions ;  she  dined  with 
the  diplomats,  and  was  not  the  blackest  present,  either. 
When  Morua  died  he  was  given  a  funeral  calculated 
to  allay  the  unrest  of  negroes  throughout  the  country, 


94  CUBA 

if,  as  reported  at  just  that  juncture,  any  existed.  His 
wife  and  daughters  were  given  quarters  in  the  palace, 
that  they  might  be  near  his  body  as  it  lay  in  state  in 
the  senate  chamber.  When  it  was  borne  to  the  grave, 
with  great  pomp  and  panoply.  President  Gomez  ac- 
companied it,  riding  openly  through  the  streets  of 
Havana  with  the  deceased's  two  brothers,  more  obvi- 
ously negroes  than  he.  Havana  professed  to  be  scan- 
dalized. For  my  part,  I  should  like  to  know  why. 
Gomez  was  raised  to  power  by  an  uprising  of  rebels 
85  per  cent  of  whom  were  negroes,  according  to  Estenoz, 
a  general  prominent  in  that  revolution.  If  one  is  to 
judge  by  the  complexion  of  manifestations  made  here 
in  Havana  in  the  candidate's  honor,  about  that  per- 
centage of  blacks  voted  for  him.  To  descend  to  per- 
sonalities, the  most  exclusive  of  those  who  '^pass  for 
white"  here  will  not  admit  that  Gomez  himself  is  en- 
titled to  do  likewise ;  they  do  not  attend  his  social 
functions,  nor,  for  instance,  enter  his  box  to  chat  with 
his  daughters  at  the  opera.  I  can't  see  but  that  he 
conducted  himself  with  perfect  propriety  with  regard 
to  Morua.  Moreover,  it  was  most  expedient  for  him 
to  do  so,  I  infer. 

The  second  of  the  two  leading  negroes  mentioned  is 
Juan  Gualberto.  He  is  Sr.  Gomez,  but  the  island, 
from  Maysi  to  San  Anton,  knows  him  as  Juan  Gual- 
berto, and  he  is  supposed  to  carry,  always,  an  unruly 
cotton  umbrella.  This  man  was  born  a  slave.  He 
educated  himself,  and  I  understand  that  he  did  a  good 
job  of  it,  too.  He  is  recognized  as  an  able  editorial 
writer,  and,  what's  rarer  here,  as  a  man  who  believes 
at  least  some  part  of  what  he  preaches.  He  supported 
Zayas  for  the  presidency,  crying  aloud  to  the  country 
that  the  election  of  Gomez  would  prove  a  national  dis- 


ARROZ    CON    FRIJOLES  95 

aster.  When  Zayas,  who  had  proclaimed  identical 
views  concerning  his  opponent,  found  it  expedient  to 
join  with  him,  resuming  second  place  on  the  Liberal 
ticket,  Juan  Gualberto  declined  to  follow  his  chief 
into  the  enemy's  camp ;  he  was  unable,  he  wrote,  to 
alter  his  convictions  overnight.  Juan  Gualberto  is 
as  black  as  the  ace  of  spades,  and  as  homely  as  the 
proverbial  home-made  brand  of  original  sin.  He  has, 
nevertheless,  a  presence.  He  is  the  irrefutable  evi- 
dence that  Maceo  —  Cuba's  one  great  fighting  general/ 
—  was  right  when  he  said,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry  asj 
to  whether  or  not  he  resented  to  be  classed  as  a  negro : 
^'  When  the  black  man  is  not  ashamed  to  be  a  black  man  J 
there'll  be  no  shame  in  being  black." 

Complacently  accepted  as  the  outcome  seems  to  be 
now,  decadence  and  depravity  in  Cuba  are  due,  largely, 
to  the  too  free  commingling  of  black  blood  with  white, 
and  especially  to  the  opprobrium  attached  to  it,  par- 
ticularly in  the  cities. 

To  walk  the  streets  of  Havana  is  to  court  horror. 
Disease  and  deformity,  in  hideous  variety,  parade  even 
Obispo.  To  me  the  beggars,  —  the  wry-limbed  men, 
and  especially  the  blear-eyed  women  —  are  by  no 
means  the  most  offensive  among  what  one  encounters. 
In  the  parks  and  on  the  promenades  one  passes,  too  often, 
male  humans  whose  condition  certainly  warrants  their 
removal  from  the  public  thoroughfare ;  I  have  often 
seen  American  women  cross  the  street  rather  than  come 
close  to  such.  If  these  things  venture  into  public,  one 
shudders  to  imagine  what  more  exists  hidden  in  the  pov- 
erty and  uncleanliness  of  the  unlighted,  unventilated 
cells  in  tenements  that  present  their  sometimes  rather 
handsome  fronts  (they  are  occasionally  the  ancient 
palaces  of  old  families)  to  Havana's  principal  streets, 


96  CUBA 

leaning  now  against  some  leading  commercial  estab- 
lishment, or,  again,  beside  some  fine  and  modern  apart- 
ment house.  Not  long  ago  the  local  newspapers  stated 
that  the  sanitary  department  had  just  removed  from 
one  ''  citadel,'^  as  they  call  these  swarming  tenements, 
a  monstrosity,  in  shape  resembling  a  dwarfed  and  ill- 
formed  human,  which  had  died  of  leprosy.  Its  parents 
had  occupied  the  same  rooms  for  years  but  the  neigh- 
bors were  not,  they  said,  aware  that  such  a  creature 
existed ;  it  was  twenty-one  years  old.  And,  knowing, 
too,  that  into  such  hives  as  these  ''  leading  citizens '' 
descend  to  visit  families  openly  supported  by  their  left 
hands,  one  wonders,  now  and  then,  what  conditions 
exist  behind  the  beautiful  fagades  of  residences  on  the 
Prado  where  wives  ''  married  by  the  church ''  and 
children  the  law  honors  lead  their  lives. 

At  any  hour  in  any  day  any  one  who  will  may  see  men 
following  with  their  eyes,  with  their  muttered  com- 
ment, little  girls  in  short  pinafores  and  pigtails  who 
are  on  their  way  to  and  from  schools.  From  infancy 
Cuban  women  are  accustomed  to  such  looks,  such 
comments;  when  they  are  babes  in  arms  they  learn 
to  smile  over  their  shoulders  at  the  ''  pretenders  '^  who 
trail  their  nursemaids.  When  Cuban  young  ladies 
walk  out,  teetering  along  on  high-heeled  shoes,  tightly 
corseted,  masked  with  rouge  and  talcum,  loafers  in  the 
corner  cafes,  which  are  the  saloons  of  Cuba,  address 
them  as  they  stroll ;  their  chaperone  used  formerly  to 
murmur  her  thanks  at  the  attention,  but  nowadays 
she  merely  looks  unaware,  or,  at  the  most,  complaisant. 
On  crowded  thoroughfares  at  busy  hours  men  deliber- 
ately arrange  themselves  along  the  narrow  sidewalks 
and  on  street  corners  in  such  manner  that  women 
must  brush  against  their  persons  in  getting  by,  —  or 


ABROZ   CON  FRIJOLES  97 

take  to  the  middle  of  the  street.  There  are  certain 
localities  to  be  especially  avoided  by  ladies  at  certain 
hours,  —  for  instance,  the  sidewalk  of  our  oldest  and 
furthest  renowned  hotel,  toward  evening  and  after 
nightfall,  when  the  gilded  youth  of  this  capital  assem- 
bles to  make  itself  especially  objectionable,  and  Obispo 
Street  when  the  Institute  (it  corresponds  to  our  High 
School ! )  releases  youngsters  whose  occasional  pastime 
of  insulting  women  is  condoned  as  the  natural  out- 
bubbling  of  youth,  no  more  reprehensible  than  the 
hectoring  of  coachmen. 

There  are  districts  in  Havana,  —  one  street,  in  par- 
ticular,—  where,  I  am  told,  indecency  beggars  the 
average  man^s  imagination,  to  say  nothing  at  all  of  his 
experience  in  tawdry  lewdness.  I  have  not  had  the 
curiosity  which  inspires  many  visiting  women  to  drive, 
with  their  husbands,  through  this  section.  In  the. 
years  I  have  lived  here  I  have  seen  quite  enough  in 
quarters  rated  respectable. 

The  city  is  not  really  wicked,  for  that  word  implies 
a  comprehension  of  vice  and  a  realization  of  guilt.  Its 
population  is  diseased,  physically  and  morally,  and 
also  mentally.  Crimes  that  are  not  mentioned,  but 
only  implied,  in  the  United  States,  when,  rarely,  they 
must  be  dealt  with,  are  here  the  subject  of  newspaper 
jest.  Such  literature  as  is  not  printed  in  English  is 
displayed  on  the  public  stalls.  Havana  is  rotten  and 
rotting,  and  those  who  note  intelligently  even  the  sur- 
face signs  of  existing  conditions  here,  see  all  her  unde- 
niable beauties  through  thick  miasma. 


CHAPTER  V 

HOME    LIFE 

Como  quieres  que  te  abra  la  puerta  de  mi  hohioj 
Si  adentro  estd  la  mulatay  reina  del  corazon  mio  ! 

—  Popular  Song. 

Each  general  condition  presupposes  its  exceptions. 
Despite  the  fact  that  I  believe  to  be  true  of  Cubans, 
by  and  large,  every  evil  under  the  tropic  sun,  I  know, 
in  the  towns,  a  few  who  deserve  no  epithets,  and  I  have 
seen,  in  the  country,  many  who  could,  I  believe,  prove 
their  innocence  of  every  adverse  charge  excepting  igno- 
rance. I  remember  saying  once  to  a  ^^  Cuban  of  Cu- 
bans,'' with  a  frankness  I  did  not  at  the  time  recognize 
as  rather  startling,  that,  whereas  I  do  despise  the  people 
in  Cuba  as  a  whole,  I  rather  like  the  individuals  I  know. 
To  which  he  returned  a  telling  thrust :  ^^  Quite  the  con- 
trary with  me,"  he  said,  ^^for  whereas  I  immensely 
admire  the  great,  kindly,  philanthropic  American  peo- 
ple, I  can't  say  that  I  think  much  of  the  individual 
citizens  I  have  had  to  examine  close  at  hand."  Frankly, 
I  do  not  wonder  at  him  :  en  masse,  there  is  no  nation  as 
wonderful,  as  be^^evolent,  as  generous  as  the  American, 
but,  individually,  there  is  no  person  so  perfectly  cal- 
culated to  '^rub"  a  Latin  ^Hhe  wrong  way"  as  the 
self-seeking,  aggressive,  unmannerly  scouts  we  send  to 
Cuba,  among  other  frontiers,  of  whose  very  faults, 
peculiarly  enough,  our  national  virtues  and  especially 
our  strength  are  constituted.     On  the  other  hand,  no 

98 


HOME    LIFE  99 

attempt  at  a  nation  could  be  more  inadequate  than  this 
y^t)  one :  weak,  corrupt,  vacillating,  and  shortsighted,  and 
yet,  in  its  component  individuals  these  very  vices  become 
urbanity,  generosity ,  leisurely  nonchalance  toward  essen- 
tials of  the  present  and  possibilities  of  the  future,  — 
restful  and  charming  qualities  that  please,  in  acquaint- 
ances and  friends. 

I  have  Cuban  friends  I  honor.  We  do  not,  it  is  true, 
exchange  visits  frequently,  for,  because  of  differences  in 
language,  customs,  and  interests  there  is  not,  between 
us,  the  little  ^Hies  that  bind^'  and  demand  a  daily  inter- 
course. I  am  thinking  particularly  of  one  family  through 
whose  portal  I  have  not  entered  for  a  year  or  two.  I 
had  the  pleasure  once  of  working  for  a  considerable 
period  under  this  man's  immediate  orders.  He  was 
conscientious,  and,  moreover,  ambitious.  I  use  the 
word  in  English  with  all  the  laudatory  significance 
Americans  attach  thereto;  in  Spanish  ^^ ambitious '' 
means  ^^pretentious,''  and  to  apply  it  in  that  language 
is  to  offend.  I  recall  with  what  pride  I  accepted  an 
invitation  to  his  home,  to  meet  his  wife,  for  the  first 
time.  I  found  her  large,  in  body  and  in  mind  ;  not  over- 
cushioned  with  fat,  bespeaking  inaction  in  muscle  and 
brain  as  well,  but  built  big  on  generous  lines  and  in  fine 
proportion.  I  have  never  seen  a  handsomer  woman 
anywhere.  She  was  his  mate  in  very  truth,  and  she 
stood  upright  beside  him,  his  equal  in  every  respect. 
Later,  I  saw  them  again  in  a  little  wider-,  sunnier  envi- 
ronment, for  promotion  and  appreciation  had  rewarded 
his  worth  and  application.  They  brought  forth  their 
two  children  to  show  me,  —  beautiful,  well-formed,  big- 
boned  sons  they  are,  —  one  as  sunny  as  she,  and  the 
other  as  silent  and  thoughtful  as  the  father  in  a  serious 
mood.     We  walked  down  to  the  new  house  they  werie 


building  then,  on  plans  they  had  drawn  up  together, 
and  as  we  passed  through  the  unfinished  residence  they 
forgot  my  presence  and  talked  as  though  I  were  not 
there.  She  would  have  a  bay  window  in  her  room. 
He  wanted  a  closet  in  his.  They'd  have  blue  tiles  in  the 
kitchen;  no,  white,  — well,  then,  white  with  a  blue 
border.  He  suggested,  she  amended,  he  substituted 
and  they  both  considered ;  as  each  detail  of  difference 
came  up,  they  hit  happily  on  a  compromise.  Maybe 
there  are  more  like  her  and  hke  him,  and  it  is  only  my 
acquaintance  which  is  limited,  but  this  couple  stands  out 
in  my  mind  as  exceptional  in  Cuba  because  in  the  har- 
/monious  whole  there  are  two  equal  parts.  She  is  a  wife, 
/  not  a  legalized  mistress  ;  he  is  a  husband,  not  a  master. 
Their  house  is  a  home,  and  in  it  there  are  children,  not 
defaced  miniatures  of  men,  born  old.  Under  Palma 
he  held  high  political  post ;  its  requirements  did  not  at 
any  time  disturb  the  quiet  order  of  his  household. 
With  Palma  he  went  out  of  office  (with  most  particular 
praise  from  Mr.  Taft  for  honesty  and  disinterested  dis- 
charge of  duty),  and  he  holds,  to-day,  a  good  position  in 
a  private  business  concern  of  importance.  His  home 
life  has  altered  not  at  all,  I  know,  because  of  his  business 
vicissitudes.  The  other  day  he  approached  me  with  a 
face  of  deepest  concern.  I  fancied  that  another  Ameri- 
can intervention  had  been  declared  overnight !  He 
unbosomed  himself  of  his  greatest  problem  :  how  to  get 
those  two  boys  educated  !  They  must  of  course  go  to 
the  United  States,  but  their  mother  cannot  part  with 
them,  or  him,  nor  he  with  either,  —  so  what's  to  be 
done  ?  Here  I  register  my  guess  :  he  will,  by  hook  or 
crook,  accompany  the  lads  and  their  mother  into  the 
north  when  the  time  comes,  and,  I  venture  further,  none 
of  them  will  return,  for,  coming  out  of  that  home,  those 


HOME   li'jF'M]  \  ',/  \/;  101 

youngsters,  once  they  are  schooled  in  tlaief^J-iii ted  St^es, 
will  find  their  proper  environment  there,  —  especially 
since  no  man  is  more  critical  of  conditions  here  than  their 
father.  When  first  I  saw  the  boys,  I  exclaimed  that  a 
little  sister  was  needed  to  complete  the  perfect  circle, 
to  which  he  replied  with  ^vehemence,  while  the  mother 
nodded  her  agreementy^'No  !  No  girls  !  The  life  of  a 
woman  is  very  sad  here  in  Cuba,  —  very  sad,  even  yet. 
It  was  worse  before  the  Americans  came,  for  then  the 
only  right  a  woman  had  was  the  right  to  starve  to  death, 
when  her  support  failed.  The  day  after  the  head  of  the 
family  died,  we  expected  the  widow  and  her  daughters 
to  appear  begging  respectably  from  door  to  door. 
Now,  at  least,  they  can  go  into  the  offices  of  the  govern- 
ment and  work,  but  .  .  /'  (Out  of  consideration  to 
me,  who  was  at  the  time  doing  just  that,  he  did  not  say 
that  he  could  not  bear  to  think  of  a  daughter  of  his  put 
to  it.)  ^^  If  a  woman  is  notmarried,''  he  went  on,  and  his 
wife  looked  at  me,  with  great  luminous  eyes  full  of  pity, 
*^she  has  no  joy  in  living ;  nor  has  a  single  man,  for  that 
matter.  Everybody  ought  to  be  married  in  Cuba.  In 
the  north  men  and  women  alike  have  their  clubs,  their 
amusements,  while  here,  there  is  nothing  !  It  is  bad 
for  a  man,  but  worse  for  a  woman.  She  must  marry. 
To  remain  single  is  truly  a  calamity.'' 

Prevailing  realization  of  that  fact  forces  many  a 
Cuban  girl  into  an  uncongenial  marriage.  Now,  the 
American  girl  will  wait  until  she  finds  the  man  she 
wants,  even  though  she  die  before  that  day  arrive,  but 
the  Cuban  girl  will  marry  the  first  male  creature  who 
asks  her  after  she  has  despaired  (and  she  despairs 
young)  of  meeting  her  choice.  I  know  many  married 
women  who,  if  they  answered  truthfully,  would  say  :  "I 
did  not  marry  my  husband  because  he  is  handsome,  for 


1[02        -:{}        \/i\/:lJJUBA 

he  if^^^h^«fe)xKi)r:J)eJafase  Jie  has  money,  for  he  has 
none. ''  ''  Because  you  loved  him  ? ''  ''  Oh,  well,  no,  not 
exactly,  and  yethe  doesn't  displease  me. ''  "Why  then  V 
''Because  I  was  bored  to  death  and  there  was  nothing 
else  to  do.'' 

Yet  even  in  a  marriage  from  which  love,  as  Americans 
fondly  expect  to  find  it  from  the  very  beginning,  is  ab- 
sent, not  only  in  the  woman,  but  also  in  the  man,  who  by 
no  means  infrequently  is  jerked  into  matrimony  pro- 
testing like  a  fish  against  the  hook,  both  find  much  of 
happiness,  for  Cubans,  both  fathers  and  mothers,  are 
devoted  parents.  Their  love  for  their  offspring  is  not 
the  less  sincere  because  it  is  tempered  by  neither  wisdom 
nor  foresight. 

They  say  that  bachelors'  wives  are  the  best  conducted 
and  old  maids'  children  the  best  brought  up  ;  certainly 
I  confess  to  a  spinsterly  disapproval  when  I  see  at 
family  ' '  reunions, "  as  they  call  their  intimate  gatherings, 
and  especially  on  the  promenades  and  in  the  parks  late 
at  night,  little  toddlers,  tired  and  silent  or  quivering 
with  overwrought  nerves,  for  whom  there  is  no  mandate 
to  retire  ''at  candle-lighting  time. "  Yet  again  I  some- 
times question  whether  wakefulness  in  the  open  air  is 
not  preferable  to  unrestful  sleep  in  the  overcrowded  and 
unventilated  quarters  into  which  some  of  even  the  best 
of  them  are  thrust.  No  wonder  they  wear  deep  black 
circles  under  their  hot  eyes.  When,  in  addition,  one 
observes  on  what  food  they  are  expected  to  find  nourish- 
ment, and  how  irrationally  they  are  drugged,  one  de- 
spairs indeed  of  any  future  for  a  country  whose  young 
dwindle  in  stature,  intelligence,  and  courage  under  treat- 
ment such  as  this.  I  have  had  in  mind  children  of  the 
,  city ;  in  the  towns  I  believe  that  they  fare  better ;  in 
I  •the  country  they  fare  worse,  for  there,  in  damp  and  dust, 


HOME    LIFE  103 

they  herd  with  the  chickens  and  pigs,  unwashed,  unclad, 
unregarded,  —  but  not  unloved. 

There  is  a  baby  in  the  house  where  we  have  lived  for 
five  years,  ^^come  next  October.''  He  is  as  energetic, 
self-willed,  bright-brained,  high-tempered  a  little  villain 
as  one  could  find.  When  first  we  knew  him  he  wore,  at 
home,  a  single  garment ;  now  tiny  trousers  have  been 
added  to  his  shirt.  I  never  saw  him,  however,  without 
socks  and  shoes.  He  plays  with  ball  and  blocks  on  the 
tiles  of  the  ground-floor  rooms  and  over  the  stone  flag- 
ging of  the  open  court,  always  in  close  proximity  to  a 
drain  from  which  nauseating  odors  rise.  Plumbing 
on  the  upper  floor,  now,  is  the  best  to  be  had,  not  be- 
cause his  mother  thinks  more  of  her  tenants'  health  than 
she  does  of  her  child's,  but  because  white  porcelain  and 
sound  pipes  help  to  rent  rooms,  —  she  exhibits  them  as 
she  would  a  fancy  gas  fixture,  to  attract.  When  the 
baby  falls  ill,  the  house  turns  end-to  with  anxiety. 
^^Tell  me,  I  entreat  you,"  his  mother  said  to  mine,  one 
day,  ^^  where  you  obtain  milk  which  is  delivered  to  you 
in  sealed  bottles.  It  looks  clean.  The  baby  is  sick. 
I  would  buy  it  for  him  even  at  twenty  cents  a  quart." 
It  was  left  for  her  some  time.  Presently  I  noted  that  the 
former  service  has  been  renewed :  she  was  once  more 
accepting  milk  in  pewter  pots,  of  such  shape  that  they 
could  not  be  scalded  had  it  ever  occurred  (as  it  had  not) 
to  the  dairyman  that  it  was  necessary  to  do  more  than 
rinse  the  vessels  on  his  way  home  in  pools  by  the  road- 
side along  which  he  passed,  with  water  where  hogs  had 
wallowed.  (I  had  occasion  once  to  ^^ muck-rake"  a 
little  into  local  dairy  methods,  hence  my  detailed  infor- 
mation as  to  this  point.)  I  made  inquiry,  and  learned 
that  the  baby  was  well ;  why,  then,  continue  the  milk 
that,  evidently,  had  cured  him?     She  returned  to  the 


104  CUBA 

cheaper  nefarious  service,  yet  from  no  idea  of  economy, 
for  there  is  nothing  too  good  for  the  one  man  child  of 
her  household.  Simply,  her  untrained  mind  did  not  per- 
ceive the  harm  in  what  she  did.  On  another  occasion 
the  baby  had  a  cold.  I  stepped  into  the  bedroom 
where  he  was  confined  to  see  him.  He  was  playing  list- 
lessly on  a  mat  upon  the  floor.  The  mother  was  with 
him ;  she  had  shut  herself  in,  to  keep  him  company. 
Every  door,  every  window,  was  closed  tight.  The  air 
within  the  chamber  was  so  fetid  I  fled  with  my  greeting 
to  him  half  spoken,  for  I  was  on  the  verge  of  becoming 
'^actively  ill,  ^'  as  they  say  on  shipboard.  To  my  aston- 
ishment, after  some  days'  exposure  to  the  poison  of  that 
imprisonment,  the  baby  emerged,  —  weak,  pale,  but  on 
his  feet,  wearing  a  pitiful  wry  smile,  of  comment,  it 
seemed  to  me,  on  the  fearful  cruelty  of  ignorance. 

This  household,  on  whose  daily  life  we  have  looked 
down  for  four  years,  has  afforded  me  a  better  insight  into 
the  intimate  existence  of  city-dwelling  Cubans  of  the 
middle  class  than  I  could  otherwise  have  obtained  ex- 
cept through  the  ordeal  of  actually  sharing  it.  The 
house  itself  in  which  we  three  families  live  together  is 
not  without  interest  to  visitors.  It  is  in  shape  a  hol- 
low square,  fitted  tight  into  a  solid  block.  It  stands  on  a 
narrow  downtown  street  in  Havana,  presenting  a  f  agade 
unadorned  save  by  a  wooden  door,  wide  and  high  as  a 
commodious  barn's,  of  some  dark  color,  in  which  heads 
of  great  nails,  or  imitation  heads,  show  through  the 
paint ;  and  two  windows,  tall  and  narrow,  barred  like 
those  of  a  county  jail,  shutters  of  which  (there  is  no 
glass)  remain  turned  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  to  keep 
out  as  far  as  possible  dust,  the  glare  of  the  sun  on  the 
yellow  walls  of  the  Supreme  Court  opposite,  and  espe- 
cially the  nerve-wracking,  ceaseless  noise  of  cars,  carts, 


HOME    LIFE  105 

automobiles,  and  street  venders,  as,  chanting,  honking, 
rumoling,  and  clanging,  they  collaborate  to  maintain 
pandemonium.  The  street  wall  of  the  house  is  smoothly 
plastered  and  tinted  a  fading  pale  green.  Passing  con- 
veyances have  splashed  it  with  mud.  There  is,  before 
it,  no  sidewalk  at  all,  but  a  narrow  coping  of  stone. 
Electric  cars  whiz  so  close  that  passengers  can,  and  do, 
touch  its  window  bars  by  half-extending  their  arms. 
On  both  sides  of  our  house  are  others  somewhat  similar 
in  externals ;  one  is  a  modern  two-story  double  apart- 
ment, erected  since  we  have  been  here,  to  rent,  and  the 
other  is  a  tenement  which  teems  with  mulattoes  and 
blacks.  In  the  block  below  us  are  the  Department  of 
Public  Instruction  and  the  National  Library ;  opposite 
the  immense  structure  which  shelters  these  and  other 
government  offices  is  a  building  which  used  to  be  the 
Court  of  First  Instance,  but  now  rents  by  the  room  to 
individuals,  —  among  them  a  ^^hair-dresser"  whose 
sign  appears,  I  notice,  at  irregular  intervals  and  in 
unusual  business  hours :  sometimes  at  night  a  broad 
stream  of  brilliant  light  falls  from  her  open  door  across 
the  street  outside,  and  passers-by,  glancing  in,  see  a  bed 
with  a  Spanish  lace  spread,  decorated  with  bow-knots 
of  scarlet  ribbon. 

One  raps  on  our  door  with  a  small  iron  knocker,  en- 
tirely uninteresting  in  age  and  design,  and  in  the  great 
door  a  small  door  opens  cautiously;  one  is  admitted 
grudgingly.  Nothing  small  annoys  me  more  than  the 
way  they  open  doors  in  Cuba,  peer  forth  through  the 
crack,  or  a  peephole  especially  cut  for  the  purpose, 
demand  one^s  business  as  they  would  a  password, 
leave  one  standing  outside  while  they  close  the  door  and 
retreat  to  consult,  finally  permitting  one,  possibly,  to 
squeeze  through.     Experience  has,  to  quote  a  sentence 


106  CUBA 

I  read  yesterday,  'thrown  a  permanent  scare  into  the 
Cuban  soul/'  At  their  thresholds  they  show  it.  I 
long  to  leap  through  crying  ^^Boo  !'' 

Admitted  into  our  house,  one  finds  himself  in  a  wide 
entry.  From  the  stone  flagging  of  the  slanting  floor  to 
the  close-raftered  ceiling  stretch  about  twenty-five 
feet  of  whitewashed  wall.  This  entry  is  large  enough 
to  accommodate  a  carriage,  if  there  were  one ;  it  was 
intended  for  that  purpose.  Under  the  backstairs  there 
is  room  for  a  horse,  but  it  is  used  instead  to  store  old 
furniture.  At  the  end  of  the  entry,  opposite  the  street 
door,  there  is  a  grille  which  may  be  locked  or  made  to 
swing  open  hospitably  in  halves.  Passing  through  one 
arrives  in  the  dining  room,  which  is  also  the  living 
room  of  the  ^^  family  downstairs. '^ 

Nothing  could  be  more  instructive  than  this  dining 
room.  There  is  a  central  table  of  considerable  exten- 
sion, for  the  family  which  gathers  about  it  is  numerous. 
It  is  covered,  between  meals,  with  a  cloth  of  imitation 
tapestry.  There  is  a  spidery  black  hatrack  with  a 
broken  glass  in  it.  Opposite,  an  old-fashioned,  high 
sideboard  of  cheap  yellow  wood ;  on  it  stand  crystal 
I  and  blue  glass  dishes,  cups,  tumblers,  crumpled  napkins, 
I  playthings,  and  schoolbooks.  In  the  corner  is  a  filter. 
^On  the  wall,  an  octagonal  clock  with  a  time-yellowed 
I  face.     Under  it,  a  row  of  rocking-chairs. 

Up  one  wall  of  the  dining  room  rises  a  narrow  wooden 
stairway  to  the  floor  above,  where  'Hhe  Americans'' 
dwell,  ^^on  the  roof"  and  isolated.  They  pay  about 
two  centenes  a  month,  in  their  rent,  for  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  their  quarters.  No  one  has  a  right  to  ascend 
those  stairs  without  their  implied  permission,  nor  pass 
the  door  at  the  turn,  which  may  be  locked,  without 
knocking.     The  American  family  in  the  tenement  ad- 


HOME    LIFE  107 

joining  is  not  so  fortunate,  for  all  the  inmates  of  that 
house  have  the  run  of  the  stairs  there,  and  washerwomen 
pass  back  and  forth  through  their  hallway  with  clothes. 

Off  the  dining  room,  back  in  the  direction  of  the  street, 
downstairs  in  our  house,  is  the  parlor,  reached  by  way  of 
an  immense  door.  This  room  is  usually  half  darkened. 
Its  walls  are  like  those  of  the  entry,  high  and  white ; 
they  give  a  barren,  empty  aspect,  and  dwarf  the  furni- 
ture, which  seems  scant.  There  is  a  piano  in  a  black 
case ;  it  is  thin- toned  and  out  of  tune.  There  are  chairs 
of  several  woods  and  as  many  patterns  ;  they  know  their 
places  and  keep  them.  There  is  a  center  table  cluttered 
with  worthless  trinkets,  —  tiny  animals  in  bisque,  arti- 
ficial flowers,  and  porcelain  figurettes.  The  whole 
place  smells  damp  and  musty. 

Another  door  from  the  dining  room  leads  into  the 
daughters^  bedroom,  of  which  I  have  noticed  only  a 
high  wardrobe  with  a  long  mirror  in  which  I  remember 
seeing  the  girls  pleasantly  reflected  as  they  turned  and 
twisted  before  it,  one  dressed  in  pink  and  the  other  in 
blue,  arraying  themselves  for  their  first  ball.  Adjoin- 
ing theirs  is  the  mother^s  bedroom,  which  has  a  door  and 
a  barred  window  on  the  patio.  Here  is  a  wide,  four-post 
bed,  wardrobes,  and  a  washstand. 

The  patio  is  a  square,  stone-paved  open  court,  into 
which  the  dining  room,  too,  has  a  pair  of  doors.  The 
walls  about  it  are  painted  an  atrocious  blue.  There  are 
palms  and  foliage  plants  in  tubs  and  tins  that  match 
the  walls  in  color.  From  their  roof  neighbors  in  the 
tenement  next  door  can  look  into  the  patio;  their  varie- 
gated children  lean  sometimes  along  the  top  of  its  wall 
and  comment  upon  whatever  may  be  transpiring  below. 
The  family  on  the  second  floor  of  the  apartment  house 
on  the  other  side  from  their  roof  can  catch  glimpses  of 


108  CUBA 

anything  of  interest  going  on,  and  their  children  cast 
pebbles  and  small  sticks  down.  These  rattle  cheerily 
on  the  tin  roof  of  the  lean-to  in  the  patio  which  is  the 
bathroom.  It  shelters  a  big  tub  of  tile,  once  white,  set 
into  cement.  Here  are  stored  wash-tubs,  foot-tubs, 
wash-pans,  dirty  clothes,  in  various  degrees  of  un- 
cleanliness  and  corrosion.  Havana  has  not  yet  a  sewer 
system.  I  presume,  however,  because  we  are  near  the 
sea,  that  there  is  a  connection  between  our  plumbing 
and  some  drainpipe,  rather  than  a  cesspool  under  the 
court. 

At  the  back  of  the  house,  from  wall  to  wall,  is  the 
kitchen,  —  roomy  enough  (most  kitchens  in  new  houses 
are  very  small),  littered  and  smoky  where,  over  charcoal 
on  braziers,  the  cook  prepares  rare  dishes  :  we  perceive 
odors  of  scorched  milk,  garlic,  saffron,  and  frying  oil. 
Above  the  kitchen  are  two  dark,  close  rooms  reached 
by  backstairs,  where  dwells  '^  the  woman  in  the  rear.'' 

There  are,  then,  in  all  the  house  downstairs,  no  win- 
dows to  the  street  save  the  two  in  the  parlor.  There  is 
no  yard,  either  front  or  back  :  the  patio  is  the  substitute, 
and  the  flat  roof,  which,  in  this  particukr  instance, 
we  tenants  of  the  upper  floor  monopolize./There  is  not, 
in  all  the  establishment,  a  single  article  or  incident  of 
comfort.  There  is  no  way  to  warm  any  part  of  the  house,- 
nor,  fortunately,  is  it  ever  really  necessary.  The  light 
is  gas,  in  unprotected  jets  that  flare.  Hot  water  non 
est,  except  as  it  boils  from  the  faucet  on  summer  days 
when  the  sun  has  been  at  the  pipes  for  a  few  moments, 
'undisturbed.  There  is  not,  if  one  except  the  growing 
plants  which  flower  now  and  then  in  defiance  of  neglect, 
one  item  of  beauty,  —  not  a  picture,  not  a  book  except- 
ing text-books  from  school.  It  is,  I  am  confident,  a  fairly 
typical  home  of  city  Cubans  of  limited  means. 


HOME    LIFE  109 

If  this  family  had  money,  the  house  would  change  in 
some  respects.  The  flooring  of  the  downstairs  rooms, 
instead  of  tiles,  would  be  marble  blocks.  The  walls 
of  the  rooms  would  remain  high,  but  the  rafters  above 
might  disappear  under  a  stucco  ceiling  and  the  whole 
color  of  the  chambers  change  from  a  dingy  white  to 
delicate  tones  of  cream,  blue,  or  pink.  The  furniture 
would  come  in  ^^  sets'' ;  it  would  lose,  however,  none  of 
the  prim  orderliness  of  its  arrangement.  Pictures  in 
obtrusively  ornate  gilt  frames  would  appear  upon  the 
walls.  Under  a  gardener's  care  the  patio  would  become 
a  beautiful  formal  garden  instead  of  a  hodgepodge  of 
whatever  happens  to  live.  The  plumbing  would  im- 
prove in  externals,  but  not  at  all  in  essentials.  The 
kitchen  would  hardly  gain.  There  would,  in  summary, 
remain  much  of  the  roominess  or  emptiness,  much  of 
the  free  air  and  available  sunlight,  which,  once  one  is  ac- 
customed to  them,  make  American  houses  seem  close, 
dark,  and  suffocating ;  there  would  also  remain  much 
of  the  bad  taste  (it  runs  to  ^^  tidies,"  paper  flowers,  and 
knicknacks)  which  is  scarce  in  our  house  because  its  resi- 
dents cannot  afford  it,  but  loads  the  wobbly  center  tables 
and  corner  whatnots  of  wealthy  Cubans  with  porcelain 
pigs,  bisque  doll  babies,  china  dogs,  and  seashells. 

The  mother  of  ^  ^  the  family  downstairs ' '  and  her  daugh- 
ters despise  work, — more,  I  am  convinced,  from  a  notion 
that  it  is  unbecoming  to  a  lady,  than  from  laziness.  Al- 
though, from  an  American  standpoint,  they  can  very 
ill  afford  it,  they  not  only  tolerate,  but  pary  a  little  money 
to  soiled  and  unskilled  serving  people  no  really  thrifty 
housewife  could  be  hired  to  have  about.  There  are 
usually  three  servants :  a  slattern  cook,  a  nursemaid 
of  little  better  appearance,  and  a  Spanish  boy  recently 
passed  through  the  Immigrant  Camp  at  Triscornia. 


110  CUBA 

The  cook  ^'  sleeps  out/'  She  (once  it  was  a  decrepit 
negro  man)  puts  in  an  appearance  some  time  after 
seven  o'clock  with  a  flat,  round  basket  containing  ma- 
terials for  the  day's  meals,  —  diminutive  tomatoes, 
thick-skinned  red  or  green  plantains,  boniatos,  which  are 
insipid  sweet  potatoes,  beans,  in  a  small  brown  paper 
parcel  with  the  corners  twisted  to  make  it  serve  as  a  bag, 
rice,  a  fish,  or  a  little  meat.  She  has  paid  one,  two,  three, 
and  four  cents  for  each  article  —  much  more  for  the 
fish  or  meat  —  out  of  a  per  diem  allowance  made  her, 
from  which,  in  addition  to  a  low  wage,  she  collects 
her  percentage  of  profit.  If  the  allowance  is  small,  the 
quality  of  what  she  buys  is  frequently  not  of  the  best. 
Now  ''the  family  downstairs"  could  not  permit  any 
member,  were  any  so  strenuously  inclined,  to  go  into 
the  reeking  market  in  person  to  haggle  with  recalci- 
trant Spanish  stall  keepers  for  tomatoes  of  respectable 
size,  meat  of  an  edible  cut,  or  eggs  ''of  the  country," 
not  "of  the  north,"  for  to  do  that  is  to  lose  caste,  as  have 
"the  Americans  of  the  upstairs,"  who  as  they  climb 
homewards  with  the  best  there  is,  in  paper  bags,  — 
choice  cuts  of  fillet,  treasures  of  young  beets,  green  peas 
not  oiled,  and  unspotted  melons,  —  return  the  contemp- 
tuous glances  bestowed  by  "the  family  downstairs" 
with  an  equally  contemptuous  gaze  of  comment  on  the 
quality  and  preparation  of  the  food  their  cook  dishes  up. 

The  cook  does  not  serve  the  first  meal.  About  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  milkman  with  thunderous 
rap,  repeated  like  a  bombardment,  succeeds  eventually 
in  rousing  the  Spanish  boy  (who  sleeps,  half  clad,  on  a 
cot  in  the  entry  by  the  door),  to  force  into  his  groping 
hand  a  pewter  can  of  milk.  This  the  nursemaid  heats 
over  an  alcohol  lamp,  and  at  intervals,  as  they  appear, 
the  members  of  the  family  take  their  morning  "coffee 


HOME    LIFE  111 

with  milk/'  Sometimes  they  gather,  uncombed  and 
half  dressed,  about  the  table  from  which  the  tapestry 
cloth  has  been  jerked ;  it  lies  carelessly  thrown  across 
a  chair  close  by,  while  they  eat  off  the  oilcloth,  slopped 
with  milk  and  water  and  strewn  with  bread,  which  in 
broken  pieces  the  serving  boy  hands  out  from  the  side- 
board drawer.  ^^  Breakfast  occurs  at  about  eleven, 
and  dinner  at  about  seven  at  night. 

Formerly  the  two  older  girls  used  to  attend  a  convent 
school  near  by.  Their  mother  saw  them  to  the  street 
door,  and,  together,  they  were  permitted  to  walk  un- 
attended the  two  blocks  necessary.  Meanwhile,  at 
home,  the  littlest  girl  sang  ''b-a,  ba!''  for  hour  after 
hour  from  her  primer,  on  the  supposition  that  she,  also, 
was  learning.  She  ^'ba-ed''  her  way  into  a  neat  blue 
uniform  of  her  own  finally,  and  was  duly  admitted  to  at- 
tendance at  the  same  school.  Jesusito,  the  baby,  then 
quarreled  with  his  fat  black  nurse  unhectored,  ordered 
his  mamaita  about  like  a  young  dictator,  fondled  the  cat 
(taboo  pet  of  the  Americans  above),  smiled  shyly  at 
them,  and  shook,  not  ^^ day-days''  as  American  babies 
do,  but  innumerable  ^^ goo-byes"  from  among  the  palms. 
The  mother  seemed  always  busy ;  sometimes  she  sewed. 
Her  shrill,  cutting  voice  kept  up  a  constant  rasping  com- 
ment on  the  day's  progress.  Late  in  the  afternoons, 
when  school  was  out,  she  gathered  her  girls  about  her, 
in  the  rocking-chairs  under  the  clock.  Perhaps  they 
sewed,  or  the  more  accomplished  read  in  English,  chant- 
ing the  words  in  a  strained  high  key,  without  proper 
accent,  in  most  unnatural  manner.  The  baby  played 
with  his  horse  on  wheels.  The  servants  stole  a 
moment  to  themselves.  The  Americans  from  above, 
noting  the  family  group  and  its  contentment,  nodded 
to  each  other  in  approval.     '^The  woman  in  the  rear," 


112  CUBA 

smoking  in  her  kitchen  window,  looked  on.     Her  only 
son  is  grown. 

We  can  always  tell  when  el  senor  —  father  of  ''th( 
family  downstairs  ''  —  is  expected  home,  to  visit  or  tc 
stay  as  long  as  he  can,  in  the  ''dead  season.''  He  is 
colono  on  a  big  sugar  plantation  in  Santa  Clara,  —  thai 
is,  he  grows  cane  on  shares.  For  two  or  three  days  prioi 
to  his  arrival  there  is  uproar  below.  The  servants  ar( 
harried  hither  and  yon  by  orders  given  in  conflict  bj 
everybody  at  once  in  piercing  voice.  The  Spanish  boj 
pours  water  by  the  bucketful  on  all  the  floors ;  he  sweeps 
the  flags  and  mops  the  tiles.  He  dusts  the  walls  with 
rag  on  a  long  bamboo.  He  brings  forth  palms  from  the 
patio,  and  stands  them  here  and  there.  The  daughters 
tie  tissue  paper  around  their  tubs  and  tins,  with  ribbon 
The  mother  dons  a  lavender  wrapper  with  a  great  boTi 
to  match  on  her  breast.  She  combs  her  thick  black  hail 
beautifully,  and  the  touch  of  white  across  her  temple 
(which  distracts  her  and  occasions  inquiry  into  reliable 
dyes)  gives  her  an  air  of  distinction;  she  is  nearer 
beauty  than  either  of  her  girls.  A  knock,  —  the  door  it 
opened  to  a  crack,  and  then  flung  wide.  ^'Jesusito  !' 
we  hear  the  sisters  scream  to  the  baby  at  his  play, ''  Papj 
has  come!  He's  come!"  They  carry  his  boy  to  hi 
arms.  They  eddy  about  him  in  an  animated  whirl 
seizing  his  satchel,  his  hat ;  patting  his  hair,  his  hands  ; 
hugging  him  ecstatically,  and  talking  loudly  all  together. 
Through  the  discord  his  voice  sounds  like  a  bass  viol. 

That  night's  dinner  is  a  state  occasion.  They  put  a 
tiny  plant,  tied  up  with  tissue  paper  and  ribbon  like  the 
rest,  in  the  middle  of  the  table.  The  Spanish  boy  laughs 
as  he  serves ;  he  spills  the  soup  and  wipes  his  hand  on  the 
seat  of  his  trousers  before  handing  up  ''a  bread"  from 
the  basket  at  the  end  of  the  table.    The  uncorseted  nurse 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Corridor  of  a  Cuban  Home  of  the  Best  Class 


/'holograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Portico   of  a  Vuelta  Abajo  Planter's  House  in   Pinar 
DEL  Rio 


HOME    LIFE  113 

behind  the  baby's  chair  jiggles  Uke  jelly  as  she  laughs 
to  make  the  baby  crow  louder.  All  lean  on  their  elbows 
and  ply  knife,  fork,  and  spoon  industriously  and  indis- 
criminately, turning  at  intervals  open,  half-filled  mouths 
to  the  father  as,  from  the  place  of  honor,  he  tells  them 
incidents  of  his  life  ^'up  country. '^  If  napkins  slip  to 
the  floor,  they  use  the  hanging  edge  of  the  tablecloth. 
It  is  the  mother  herself  who  brings  forward  from  the 
kitchen  a  custard  for  dessert  in  making  which  she  spent 
half  a  day.  Over  the  coffee  they  linger  long.  When, 
finally,  they  arise,  the  table  cover  is  wrinkled  and  damp 
and  soiled  at  the  edges  and  in  spots  everywhere;  the 
setting  is  awry,  and  bread  and  crumbs  and  bones  and 
peelings  litter  it  from  end  to  end. 

That  evening  they  sit  in  a  row  in  the  chairs  under  the 
clock,  father  and  mother  side  by  side  and  hand  in  hand. 
The  girls  crowd  close  about  him,  the  littlest  at  his  knee. 
The  baby  climbs  into  her  lap,  and  sleeps. 

When  in  time  el  senor  returns,  as  he  must,  to  the 
sugar  estate,  a  renewal  of  commotion  marks  the  day  of 
his  departure.  Again  the  servants  are  hustled  about 
and  sharp  staccato  shrieks  arise  from  the  patio.  I  have 
never  heard  voices  that  reminded  me  so  strongly  of  an 
orchestra  tuning  up.  The  girls  bring  their  father's 
clothing.  The  mother  packs  his  satchel,  with  pink  and 
blue  shirts  and  socks  and  linen  suits.  They  accom- 
pany him  to  the  train,  and,  when  they  get  back  from 
the  station,  sit  silently  in  a  row  in  the  selfsame  chairs 
under  the  noisy  clock.  The  tissue  paper  disappears 
from  the  tubs ;  they  go  back  to  the  patio.  The  purple 
wrapper  is  hung  away.  The  tablecloth  writhes  in  new 
wrinkles  over  the  board.  I  have  seen  the  Spanish  boy 
seize  it  at  both  ends,  roll  it  into  a  bundle,  —  crumbs, 
bones,  peelings,  and  all,  —  and  thrust  it,  unshaken  and 


114  CUBA 

unfolded,  into  the  sideboard  drawer  along  with  the  ac- 
cumulating crusts  of  stale  bread.  The  current  of  small 
events  resumes  its  usual  flow.  From  the  altos  the  Amer- 
icans look  down,  in  superiority,  over  late  risings,  burnt 
milk  breakfasts,  and  a  scant  wash  half  clean,  hstlessly 
wrung  from  a  shallow  pan.  From  the  patio  those  below 
look  up,  with  curled  lips,  as  the  Americans,  with  dripping 
mop,  wipe  up  their  own  floors,  cook  their  own  meals, 
wash  their  own  dishes,  only  to  sally  forth  later  un- 
ashamed, and  wearing  hats.  Ah,  those  hats  are  our 
revenge,  obtained  at  intervals.  Having  bought  a  new 
one,  we  pay  cash  and  order  it  delivered.  We  know  that 
the  uniformed  boy  makes  a  great  clatter  on  the  front 
door,  that  he  pushes  the  tremendous  box  in  before  him, 
and  follows  it  importantly,  that  he  sets  it  carefully  upon 
our  stairs,  according  to  instructions,  and  retires,  leaving 
all  who  are  in  the  vicinity  to  study,  in  what  mood  they 
will,  the  French  title  upon  that  box.  Our  hats  hail  from 
Obispo, —  and  theirs  from  Galiano  or  San  Rafael  streets. 
We  reflect  upon  that  detail,  and  are  comforted  as  we  en- 
dure their  contumely  amid  our  homely  tasks.  ^^The 
woman  in  the  rear,''  smoking  in  her  kitchen  window,  — 
she  has  no  hat  at  all.  ? 

Each  year  at  about  Christmas  time,  or  after  carnival, 
perhaps,  ''the  family  downstairs''  goes  into  the  country 
to  spend  the  rest  of  ''the  grinding  season"  with  el 
senor  on  his  colonia.  Last  June,  when  they  came  home, 
we  recognized  that  an  important  event  had  occurred 
meanwhile.  The  girls  had  become  young  ladies  :  their 
hair  was  piled  high,  their  dresses  were  made  long,  a 
touch  of  rouge  illumined  their  cheeks,  and  there  was 
powder  upon  their  noses.  No  more  blue  convent 
uniforms  for  them,  —  the  littlest  was  alone  in  that 
glory.      Then,  indeed,  there   was  a  how-de-do.      The 


HOME    LIFE  115 

house  was  whitewashed  inside  and  painted  outside. 
The  plant  tubs  and  tins  in  the  patio  were  daubed  anew 
with  cerulean.  The  best  palms  took  permanent  place  in 
the  corners,  and  tissue  paper  and  ribbons  embellished 
them  even  in  the  father^s  absence.  Then  a  governess 
came  of  mornings  :  she  taught  French,  I  think,  as  well 
as  English,  music  (chopsticks  were  abandoned  and 
the  eldest  mastered  a  waltz),  and  sewing.  I  have 
seen  both  girls  stretched  almost  full  length  across  the 
table,  poring  together  over  Modes  de  Paris  before 
proceeding  to  copy  ^Hhe  latest^'  as  best  they  were  able, 
in  thirty-cent  figured  lawn,  bought  in  some  one  of 
numerous  shopping  expeditions  to  ^^The  Enchant- 
ment,^^ ^^The  Great  House, ^^  or  ^ Philosophy. ^'  To 
their  credit  be  it  said  they  did  attain  effect ;  their 
gowns  were  sometimes  minus  buttons  and  exhibited 
rows  of  pins  down  the  back,  but  few  American  girls 
with  as  scant  training  and  as  little  to  do  with,  could 
compass  the  appearance  these  girls  made,  seen  from  a 
distance.  In  the  afternoon  they  posed  at  their  street 
windows,  their  mother  rocking  in  her  chair  just  behind 
them,  or  they  walked  out  with  her.  The  mother,  too, 
had  a  new  gown,  a  cheap  little  imitation  of  an  American 
tailor-made ;  unlike  most  chaperones  who  tag  the  eli- 
gibles,  she  was  in  her  neat  and  attractive  self  a  recom- 
mendation of  her  girls.  Sometimes  they  went  to  the 
theater,  airing  light  and  filmy  scarfs ;  they  returned 
home  toward  midnight,  accompanied  by  whatever 
other  family  had  invited  them,  and  at  the  clatter  of 
tongues  as  they  bade  mutual  good  nights  the  Americans 
upstairs  woke  and  turned  impatiently  in  bed.  Or 
there  was  company  in  the  evening ;  until  midnight  then 
we  were  tormented  with  loud  laughter  and  many  voices 
in  dissonant  chorus,  among  which  we  could  now  and 


116  CUBA 

then  distinguish  the  uncertain  tenor  of  some  young 
man  we  knew  was  sitting  on  the  edge  of  his  chair  cool- 
ing himself  rapidly  with  a  small  black  fan,  which  he 
replaced  at  intervals  in  his  waistcoat  pocket.  On  this, 
too,  ''the  woman  in  the  rear,''  smoking  in  her  kitchen 
window,  looked  down  interestedly.  Her  son  is  only 
a  mechanic. 

During  the  family's  absence  in  the  country  each  sea- 
son, caretakers  have  been  installed.  Once  it  was  a 
round,  kind  woman  and  her  comely  daughter,  to  court 
whom  a  policeman  called.  He  was  rather  handsome 
in  his  blue  uniform,  and  they  held  forth  in  the  chairs 
under  the  clock,  openly  fondling  each  other.  The 
mother  bent  low  over  the  dining  table,  spelling  out  the 
Associated  Press  telegrams  in  the  Diario  de  la  Marina. 
I  ventured  to  compliment  her  once  on  her  prospective 
son-in-law.  She  spoke  disrespectfully  of  him  :  he  had 
been  courting  nine  years,  and  now  earned  only  thirty 
dollars  a  month,  on  which  he  and  his  sweetheart  agreed 
that  they  dared  not  marry.  Yet  they  could  not 
break  off  the  match,  or  the  girl  would  be  ruined,  so 
carping  is  custom  here.  Already  her  sweet  face  had 
taken  on  a  shade  of  tragedy. 

This  year,  however,  when  the  family  went  they  left 
in  charge  ''the  woman  in  the  rear."  Prior  to  that  time 
she  had  lived  in  two  rooms  and  a  stair  landing,  at  the 
back  of  the  house  above  their  kitchen.  These  rooms  have 
two  windows,  barred,  overlooking  the  patio,  and  a  door 
opening  on  the  back  roof,  to  half  of  which  only  are  we 
"Americans  of  the  upstairs"  entitled. 

Before  she  occupied  them  these  rooms  were  filled  with 
two  very  old  ladies,  one  of  whom  was  bedridden,  their 
niece.  Dona  Maria,  who  sewed  for  a  pittance,  her  son, 
German,  a  boy  such  as  God  sends  infrequently,  and  the 


HOME    LIFE  117 

bent  old  black  hag  who  served  them  to  the  very  ending 
of  her  strength.  The  negress  delivered  cantina  dinners 
for  a  restaurant  by  day,  for  what  few  pennies  it  paid, 
and  at  night  she  fished  in  the  garbage  for  what  she 
might  find.  Betweentimes  she  cooked  and  washed 
and  waited  upon  her  mistresses.  She  was  the  last 
faithful  slave  of  their  retinue.  She  slept  in  one  room ; 
they,  Dona  Maria  and  the  child,  slept  in  the  other,  — 
the  sick  woman  in  a  heavily  curtained  unaired  bed,  and 
the  rest  on  cots,  with  the  windows  and  doors  all  closed. 
Fortunately,  the  walls  do  not  quite  touch  the  roof,  and 
under  the  eaves  there  is  a  ventilation  they  could  not  stop 
up.  In  this  bedroom  was  an  altar,  gaudily  trimmed, 
before  which  they  burned  an  uninterrupted  lamp  of 
oil.  The  negress  died,  and  two  strange  women  of  her 
own  race,  as  silent  and  as  old,  came  in  a  carriage  and 
laid  her  out ;  they  came  again  and  carried  her  away, 
having  begged  permission  to  take  her  down  our  stairs, 
which  have  only  one  turn.  Later  still,  the  sick  one  of 
the  two  old  white  women  died  and  was  buried ;  German, 
the  child,  pitiful  and  lonely  in  his  black,  rode  after  her 
body  in  a  carriage,  her  only  mourner.  The  survivors 
prepared  then  to  move  away,  as  is  the  custom  when 
death  occurs.  The  remaining  old  lady  brought  us  a 
gift  of  two  china  cups  with  her  initials  burned  in,  in 
gold,  part,  evidently,  of  an  especially  made  imported 
set.  We  urged  her  to  save  them  for  German  when  he 
should  be  grown.  She  said  she  had  a  cupboardful 
beside.  Doiia  Maria  gave  us  a  glass  butter  plate  such 
as  one  could  buy  for  five  cents  in  a  department  store ; 
and  so  they  passed  out  of  our  lives,  struggling  on  in 
theirs.  We  saw  them  go  with  keen  regret,  for  these 
were  gentlefolk. 

When  first  we  spied  her  face  at  the  window  ^Hhe 


118  CUBA 

weman  in  the  rear^'  looked  very  dark-complexioned  to 
us.  We  don't  see  that  now,  since  we  know  her.  Her 
husband  is  an  artisan,  —  a  plumber  and  boilermaker, 
machinist  and  engineer,  combined,  as  nearly  as  I  am 
able  to  discover.  He  is  about  sixty  years  of  age,  and 
won't,  so  his  wife  says,  admit  it.  Certainly  he  does 
not  look  it,  though  he  is  gaunt  and  tall  and  grizzled. 
He  wears  the  expression  of  an  exceedingly  good-natured 
Russian  hound.  She  is  thirty-five.  Their  only  son, 
an  artisan  like  his  father,  is  about  twenty,  I  suppose. 
When  first  they  moved  in,  these  three  kept  close  to 
their  quarters  and  surveyed  us  through  the  bars.  I 
do  not  recall  how  the  almost  intimate  acquaintance 
between  us  first  began ;  perhaps  it  was  spontaneous, 
for  certainly  we  have  much  in  common  with  these 
Cubans.  They  are  country  people  from  Pinar,*'  and 
typical,  I  take  it,  not  of  any  class  in  any  city,  but  of 
the  middle  class  of  a  small  town. 

The  altar  where  the  former  tenants  enshrined  their 
Virgin  has  become  a  sideboard.  There  is  not  a  sacred 
picture,  a  holy  lamp,  or  a  scapular  to  be  found  on  the 
premises.  Perfect  cleanliness  prevails.  There  is  a 
red  cloth  on  the  dining  table  in  the  largest  room.  There 
are  a  few  chromos  hung  around.  There  is  a  swinging 
lamp  with  a  red  shade,  and  in  the  evenings  they  light 
it  and  sit  under  it  in  rocking-chairs,  all  three  smok- 
ing together.  In  the  bedroom  there  is  a  four-poster, 
and  the  counterpane  and  pillow  slips  are  clean ;  they 
are  hand-embroidered  and  trimmed  with  lace  Dona 
Pilar  crochets.  One  night  the  rats  ran  through,  and 
bit  the  mother's  ankle  as  she  slept.  They  nibbled  the 
finger  tips  of  the  boy,  asleep  on  his  cot  in  the  middle 
room;  he  had  been  eating  cheese  the  night  before. 
After  that  Doiia  Pilar  gave  the  American's  cat  the  run 


HOME    LIFE  119 

of  her  rooms ;  in  the  first  three  days  she  was  installed 
below  as  caretaker  she  caught  nineteen  rats  in  a  trap 
and  drowned  them  in  a  washtub. 

By  the  door  to  the  back  azotea  (roof)  are  Doiia  Pilaris 
flowering  plants  in  rusting  pots.  There  is  no  paint 
here,  but  there  is  more  bloom  than  all  the  patio  below 
can  show.  The  son  fashioned  a  tiny  watering  pot  from  a 
condensed  milk  can,  for  his  mother  to  sprinkle  her 
garden,  and  many  are  the  mornings  we  have  seen  him 
out,  bending  over  her  as  she  showed  him  one  by  one 
the  new  blossoms  as  they  burst  open  to  the  day. 

This  woman  is  by  no  means  disinclined  to  work. 
She  mops  and  dusts  and  sews  and  cooks  and  washes  and  ^ 
irons,  and  reads  two  daily  papers  from  editorials  to 
advertisements ;  when  she  leans  in  her  kitchen  window 
and  smokes,  it  is  because  there  is  not  one  other  thing 
that  she  can  do.  She  constitutes  then  a  perfect  picture 
of  unwilling  idleness,  and  these  are  the  only  times  when 
any  unhappiness  descends  upon  her  thin  keen  face. 

In  the  years  that  we  have  known  her  she  has  not  gone 
even  into  the  street  for  a  holiday  but  once,  and  then  she 
developed  a  keen  desire  to  attend  her  sister's  wedding, 
which  was  to  occur  at  Guira,  twenty-eight  miles  west. 
Her  husband  disapproved.  She  asked  and  obtained 
washing  to  do  for  ''the  Americans  upstairs''  to  the 
amount  of  fare  there  and  back,  and  she  and  her  son 
went,  nevertheless.  She  returned  with  great  bouquets 
of  flowers  for  her  house  and  ours. 

I  have  never  known  her  or  any  of  her  family  to  go  to 
church.  Now  ''the  family  downstairs,"  they  do  at- 
tend mass ;  the  fact  that  young  men  line  the  sidewalks 
about  fashionable  churches  to  see  the  fair  attendants 
come  and  go  may  have  something  to  do  with  their 
fervor.     I  shall  not  forget  one  day  that  Dona  Pilar 


/ 


120  CUBA 

happened  into  our  rooms,  where,  having  found  a  stick 
of  Chinese  incense,  I  had,  in  a  moment  of  idleness, 
set  it  burning  before  a  BiUikin.  She  gazed  long  at  the 
image,  puffing  her  cigarette  thoughtfully,  and  then  with 
a  tolerant  smile  she  said  :  ''Some  (puff)  burn  it  to  Saint 
Anthony ;  and  some  (puff)  to  Saint  Joseph.  (Puff, 
puff.)  If  you  wish,  why  not  to  that?''  Instead,  on 
Sunday  morning  Doiia  Pilar  and  her  husband  go  to  the 
market  and  bargain  for  their  Sunday's  dinner  — On 
week  days  she  patronizes  venders  and  hisses  for  the 
corner  grocery  boys  to  call.  It  is  a  sight  to  see  them 
return  and  spread  their  purchases  upon  the  table  in 
little  piles,  to  admire. 

The  moment  ''the  family  downstairs''  were  well 
away  and  "the  woman  in  the  rear"  installed  in  the 
spacious  elegance  of  their  dining  room,  two  bedrooms, 
the  court  and  the  kitchen  (the  other  rooms  were  closed 
up),  a  great  change  came  over  this  house.  A  solitary 
hen,  her  pet,  which  had  been  confined  to  her  rooms, 
and  only  rarely,  under  close  watch,  been  permitted  to 
bask  in  the  sunlight  on  the  back  azotea,  was  loosed  in 
the  patio,  A  rooster  appeared,  and  presently  there  was 
a  flock  of  chicks  among  the  palms. 

Cubans  are  fond  of  pets,  especially  birds,  of  which 
Doiia  Pilar  keeps  a  melodious  dozen  in  cages,  and  I 
believe  that  they  are  not  often  consciously  cruel  to 
them ;  yet  they  prepare  their  cocks  for  fights  by  pluck- 
ing the  feathers  from  their  living  flesh,  and  sometimes 
try  to  keep  so  many  animals  about  that  some  starve.  I 
recall  seeing  a  mocking  bird  gasping  from  heat  in  its 
cage,  hung  on  a  summer  day  in  an  exposed  place  on  a 
house  wall.  I  inquired  of  the  manager  of  the  planta- 
tion we  were  visiting  how  much  he  thought  the  woman 
who  owned  it  would  sell  it  for;    to  my  surprise  he 


HOME    LIFE  121 

replied  that  he  didn't  beheve  she  would  sell  it  at  all. 
'^  She's  very  fond  of  that  bird/'  he  said.  I  called  her 
attention  to  the  fact  that  her  darling  was  gasping  like 
a  swimmer  about  to  go  down  for  the  third  time.  She 
stared  at  the  bird,  and,  snatching  it  from  the  wall,  car- 
ried it  to  a  nail  in  the  shade.  Simply,  she  had  not  ob- 
served its  predicament. 

No  sooner  was  Dona  Pilar  quite  at  home  downstairs 
than  her  relatives  began  to  arrive  from  the  country,  — 
an  elder  sister,  as  lean,  active,  and  full  of  a  certain  wit, 
as  Dona  Pilar;  and  a  younger  sister,  the  sweet  little 
bride  of  a  policeman  groom,  who  probably  does  not 
earn  more  than  the  thirty  dollars  a  month  the  other 
one  got,  but,  with  her  as  a  helpmeet,  finds  it  enough. 
The  son  acquired  a  puppy  dog,  a  little  yellow  mongrel 
with  bristles  like  a  hog  and  a  vigorous  yap.  The  bride 
brought  a  pair  of  bantams,  —  a  cock  and  a  tiny  hen, 
which  she  held  in  her  arms  sometimes  and  kissed  vig- 
orously, at  which  the  little  cock  would  stretch  his  neck 
and  crow  loud  and  long.  The  sister  brought  a  parrot, 
which  mimicked  the  dog  and  meowed  like  the  cat  and 
cackled  with  the  hen  and  without  her.  Morning  and 
night  it  called  ^^  Antonio,"  and  finally,  one  day,  I  was 
astonished  to  see  this  elder  sister  spring  at  a  stranger 
who  asked  admittance  at  the  front  door.  From  a 
tight  position  in  his  arms  she  called  upon  heaven  and 
earth  to  witness  that  Antonio  had  arrived,  —  he  was 
her  husband,  from  Guira.  He  stayed  some  days.  A 
little  child  joined  the  household,  and  a  young  man,  a 
friend  oftTie  son's,  paid  long  calls.  The  father  mean- 
while —  Doiia  Pilar' s  husband,  Romero  —  was  in  the 
country,  at  work  in  a  near-by  mill. 

Where  the  phonograph  dropped  from  I  have  no  notion, 
but  presently  it  began  to  grate  forth  the  sextette  from 


122  CUBA 

^'Florodora''  every  night.  We  could  hear  the  shuf- 
fling of  feet  on  the  stone  flags  below,  and  saw  that  they 
were  dancing  together,  the  boys  as  one  couple,  Dona 
Pilar  and  a  sister  as  another.  Dona  Pilar  was  smok- 
ing, puffs  ascending  in  time  to  the  measure  of  the 
dance.  We  understood  that  we  were  witnessing  a  very 
orgy  of  prosperity  and  the  pleasures  that  it  brings. 

One  day  we  rushed  downstairs  at  the  sound  of  loud 
screaming.  We  found  Dona  Pilar  in  hysterics,  her 
two  sisters  bending  over  her  with  solicitude  and  cold 
water.  Her  son's  employer  had  called  to  ask  why  the 
boy  had  not  been  at  work  for  two  weeks.  That  he 
had  not  been  working  as  usual  was  news  to  the  mother. 
When  he  arrived  that  night,  apparently  from  his  day's 
labor,  she  took  him  vigorously  to  task.  Thereafter 
the  phonograph  was  silent  for  many  days.  Dona 
Pilar  was  sullen.  The  son  sat  humped  up  in  his  chair. 
The  elder  sister  returned  to  her  home.  The  bride  and 
the  policeman  betook  themselves  to  the  two  upstairs 
rooms,  and  Romero  came  home  from  the  sugar  mill. 
Under  his  eye  the  household  moves  decorously. 

These  people  have  many  salient  virtues.  They  are 
generous  to  a  fault.  One  dare  not  admire  even  a  blos- 
som in  their  garden,  because  they  immediately  present 
one  with  the  plant.  One  cannot  pass  their  table  with- 
out a  courteous  invitation  to  partake  of  the  meal ;  it 
is  meant  to  be  declined  with  the  usual  formula  (^^May 
you  profit  by  it  V^),  and  yet,  were  one  actually  hungry, 
one  would  be  fed.  They  are  industrious  and  willing 
to  learn.  Dofia  Pilar,  for  instance,  watched  my  mother 
make  bread,  tasted  the  finished  article,  discovered  that 
her  husband  thought  it  good,  and  appeared  one  day 
with  flour,  other  ingredients,  and  a  request  that  she  be 
taught.     She  learned  with  astonishing  facility.     She 


HOME    LIFE  123 

borrowed  our  ^^tin  oven''  once  or  twice,  and  having 
found  it  pleasant  to  be  able  to  bake,  as  well  as  stew 
and  fry,  proposed  to  buy  one  of  her  own,  but  at  that 
moment  both  father  and  son  lost  their  positions.  Then, 
indeed,  there  was  sorrow  in  the  household,  for  not  even 
these  Cubans  are  provident.  Both  men  had  been 
earning  good  wages,  and  they  had  fed  our  cat  more  food 
than  my  mother  and  I  bought,  but  there  was  not  a 
cent  saved.  We  gave  Dona  Pilar  our  wash  to  do,  and 
once,  with  her  eyes  downcast,  when  there  was  no  wash 
she  asked  for  a  peseta.  She  had  stood  all  day  at  her 
window,  but  she  did  not  smoke,  for  there  were  no  ciga- 
rettes. Now  she  expected  the  men,  and  there  was 
nothing  whatsoever  to  eat.  Both  of  them  were  return- 
ing to  a  supperless  house  after  a  long  day  of  useless  walk- 
ing from  place  to  place  in  search  of  work.  Before  they 
found  positions  Dona  Pilar  had  borrowed  almost  three 
whole  dollars  of  us,  and  this  money,  to  our  surprise, 
she  never  repaid,  but  instead  she  has  embroidered  a 
scarf  for  us,  given  us  flowers,  fruit,  and  her  choicest 
bird,  done  odd  pieces  of  washing  in  a  hurry,  and  other- 
wise stood  ready  to  assist  us  in  any  way. 

It  was  during  the  time  that  the  men  were  out  of  work 
I  saw  come  to  the  surface  the  only  fault,  except  im- 
providence (natural  enough  to  those  who  reside  in  a 
climate  where  every  condition,  natural  and  political, 
enforces  it)  which  one  can  impute  to  these  people,  — 
that  is,  a  lack  of  self-confidence.  For  instance,  al- 
though they  were  both  skilled  workmen  and  it  was 
reported  at  the  season  that  the  Department  of  Public 
Works  was  in  need  of  such,  the  elder  man  came  to 
me  and  begged  me  for  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the 
supervisor,  in  order  to  enable  him  and  his  son  to  apply 
for  a  job.     I  urged  him  to  go  on  his  own  account,  to 


124  CUBA 

ask  to  see  Colonel  Black,  to  tell  him  his  qualifica- 
tions, which  were,  to  an  American,  his  only  recom- 
mendation of  value.  He  could  not  understand  my 
point  of  view ;  he  thought  I  was  not  his  friend  at  all, 
so  finally,  although  I  had  not  the  acquaintance  with 
Colonel  Black  to  justify  me  in  doing  so,  I  gave  him 
a  letter,  with  which  he  set  forth  in  high  hope.  Unfor- 
tunately, although  the  supervisor  received  him  most 
considerately,  there  was  no  opening  in  his  line.  I 
do  not  know  where  finally  he  found  employment,  but 
after  more  than  seven  lean  days  he  did  find  it.  The 
son  was  equally  fortunate,  so  now  they  are  living  high 
on  seasoned  stews  and  yellow  soups,  of  which  they  still 
throw  away  enough  to  keep  another  family. 

This  same  lack  of  self-confidence  takes  on  at  times 
the  aspects  of  duplicity.  I  believe  that  if  one  ap- 
proached Dofia  Pilar  in  attitude  sufficiently  domineer- 
ing, one  could  compel  her  to  bear  witness  to  anything 
that  one  desired,  even  against  her  own  friends;  to  a 
certain  extent  one  could  compel  her  to  act  against 
them.  The  man,  her  husband,  being  a  little  stronger, 
might  in  a  dilemma  be  merely  silent ;  he  could  not  be 
forced  to  do  much  of  which  he  did  not  approve,  but 
nevertheless  even  he  in  an  emergency  would  not  stand 
firm.  This  is  not  more  reprehensible  than  it  is  pitiable ; 
like  the  timid  manner  of  opening  doors,  it  is  but  an 
evidence  of  the  permanency  of  the  scare  thrown.  Just 
as  they  would  not  defend  friends,  so  these  people  would 
not  defend  themselves  face  to  face  against  enemies. 
They  would  suffer  while  they  must,  and  fade  away. 
They  are  Cuba's  famous  noncombatants. 

Through  the  wars  with  Spain  they  and  their  kind 
remained  apparently  apathetic,  though  secretly  they 
assisted  the  revolutionists  and  in  the  long  run  consti- 


tuted  the  strength  of  these  so  effectively  that  Spain 
ordered  the  notorious  reconcentration  of  the  noncombat- 
ants,  —  the  herding  into  towns  the  Spanish  controlled  of 
the  simple  country  people,  like  'Hhe  woman  in  the  rear.'' 
While  '^patriots''  then  roved  the  woods  and  lived,  or 
existed,  free  at  least,  these,  their  wretched  allies,  starved 
in  confinement  within  restricted  areas. 

They  accumulated  the  bulk  of  that  permanent 
scare.  They  are  cowed.  They  observe  that  they  are 
no  longer  subjects,  to  be  oppressed,  but  they  have  by 
no  means  discovered  that  they  are  citizens,  despite  the 
fact  that  a  republic  has  been  declared  in  their  name. 
When  election  day  comes  around  Dona  Pilar  makes  ice- 
cream, and  her  two  men  stay  safely  at  home  and  eat 
it.  There  is  a  battle  on  they  know,  not  of  bullets 
now  but  of  ballots,  between  two  contending  parties. 
For  what  these  may  do  they  do  not  consider  themselves 
responsible,  —  God  forbid  !  —  for  they  are  still  non- 
combatant. 

I  am  grateful  that   circumstances  have  permitted 
us  to  know  Dona  Pilar  and  her  Romero  and  Francisco 
well ;  they  have  raised  our  opinion  of  Cubans,  and  made 
intelligible,  to  some  extent,  those  others  of  their  same 
type   one   meets    in    traveling    through    their    native 
habitat,  the  provinces.     They  are  ^Hhe  leading  fami- 
lies'' of  the  country  districts;   on  the  mountain  slopes 
of  Pinar  del  Rio  and  in  inaccessible  valleys  of  Orientt 
I  have  found  them  dwelling  in  two-  and  three-rooml 
bohioSj  tightly  thatched  that  the  rain  may  not  beat! 
in  upon  the  American-made  sewing  machine  which  is  I 
the  wife's  proudest  possession,  or  upon  the  saddle  and  I 
trappings  of  the  dainty-footed  stallion,  whose  quarters  \ 
are  quite  as  good  as  his  master's  own.     The  furniture   \ 
in  a  home  like  this  is  a  solidly  built  table,  with  top    \ 


126  CUBA 

scrubbed  more  or  less,  and  chairs  (of  a  crude  '^mission 
style/'  with  hide  backs  and  bottoms),  supplemented 
with  empty  boxes  upon  which  one  reads  such  familiar 
legends  as  Crosse  &  Blackwell,  and  Gail  Borden's 
Eagle  Brand.  Usually,  somewhere  upon  the  wall,  one 
will  find  a  patent-medicine  calendar,  prized  for  its  bright 
picture.  The  women  of  this  household  wear,  like 
Dona  Pilar,  a  chemise,  a  white  petticoat,  a  waist  fas- 
tened at  the  belt  with  a  gathering  string,  and  a  calico 
skirt  so  long  it  drags  in  the  dirt.  If  they  have  shoes, 
they  are  of  coarse  quality,  poor  workmanship,  and  a 
stubby  native  pattern.  If  the  season  has  gone  well 
with  fathers  and  husbands,  they  may  attempt  a  corset 
and  hat,  which,  combined,  take  from  them  every  line 
of  easy  grace,  and  all  their  charm.  The  men  wear 
trousers  of  light  washable  materials,  and  shirts  in 
many  colors ;  their  best  suit  is  linen,  ironed  to  resplen- 
dent gloss,  the  upper  garment  of  which  hangs  outside 
their  trousers  like  a  coat,  but  is  split  at  the  hips  like 
a  shirt  and  finished  over  the  shoulders  with  tucks, 
pockets,  and  pearl  buttons.  With  this  suit  they  wear 
brown  shoes  and  a  panama  hat,  a  combination  which 
all  together  constitutes  Cuba's  national  costume.  When 
I  meet  on  the  highway  a  man  in  a  suit  like  this,  rocking 
atop  his  nag,  which  moves  as  easy  as  a  swinging  chair 
on  the  peculiar  ^^gait  of  the  country,"  I  salute  him,  not 
only  because  it  is  the  courtesy  of  the  road,  but  also 
because  I  know  he  is  a  useful  citizen.  He  owns  a  little 
tobacco  field,  or  a  small  coffee  plantation,  or  a  sugar 
coloniay  or  a  herd  of  cattle  somewhere ;  he  may  only 
plant  on  shares  on  another  man's  land,  or,  again,  he 
may  possess  a  title  in  ''dollars  of  possession"  to  acres 
and  acres  of  hill  and  plain.  Sometimes  his  women 
accompany  him,  —  his  wife,  perhaps,   seated  on  the 


HOME    LIFE  127 

crouper  behind  him,  and  a  couple  of  daughters  follow- 
ing on  a  docile  mare.  When  he  raises  his  hand  to  his 
hat  in  military  salute,  responding  to  my  greeting,  they 
lift  up  their  voices  and  chant  all  together,  in  the  peculiar 
high  whine  of  the  Cuban  countrywoman,  with  a  drawl 
inimitable  :  ^^Bueno-o-o-os  Di-i-i-i-ias  !^^  or  briefly  bid 
me  farewell,  with  a  murmured  ^^Adios!'' 

Below  these,  who  are  the  very  best  and  most  active 
inhabitants  in  all  the  country,  rank  those  other  guajiros 
who,  being  either  less  intelligent,  less  active,  or  less  for- 
tunate than  they,  exist  less  comfortably,  also  in  bohios, 
but  poorly  bound  together  so  that  the  rain  drives  in 
and  makes  mud  upon  the  floor  in  which  dogs  and  chick- 
ens wallow  unregarded,  along,  sometimes,  with  the  pig. 
There  is  no  sewing  machine  here,  and  when  the  head 
of  this  household  travels  he  jogs  along  on  a  mud- 
stained  mare  with  burrs  in  her  unbraided  tail.  He 
wears  no  stiflGiy  starched  coat-shirt,  with  tucks  and 
buttons  and  an  intricate  monogram  embroidered  upon 
the  pocket,  but  a  plain  colored  shirt,  undisguised,  un- 
ornamented,  and  unwashed.  His  wife  walks  abroad  in 
two  garments  only,  a  waist  and  a  skirt,  and  her  feet 
are  bare  inside  frayed  carpet  slippers.  What  a  man 
of  this  sort  does  for  a  living  depends,  I  suppose,  upon 
his  surroundings  :  he  may  burn  charcoal,  or  cut  tobacco 
poles,  or  do,  as  far  as  I  can  make  out,  nothing  at  all. 
If  he  has  a  plantain  tree  and  a  patch  of  malanga  or 
yuca  in  his  neighborhood,  he  passes  for  thrifty.  No 
matter  what  his  circumstances,  however,  he  and  his 
wife  welcome  a  visitor  into  the  house,  and  to  the  only 
chairs  or  boxes  it  contains.  He  calls  for  coffee,  and  she 
serves  it ;  if  they  fail  to  offer  it,  the  caller  may  rest 
assured  there  is  absolutely  nothing  whatsoever  to  eat 
beneath  that  roof. 


128  CUBA 

How  many  recollections  throng  my  mind  of  visits  to 
these  country  homes  of  Cuba  !  I  see  the  prosperous 
family  at  Rangel :  there  were  fences  all  about  their 
place,  and  they  kept  half  a  dozen  vicious-looking  dogs. 
There  were  also  cats.  They  served  us  coffee  in  pink 
and  gilt  cups  with  saucers  to  match,  and  referred  us  to 
an  octogenarian  neighbor  of  theirs  who  knew  more 
than  they  about  the  country  concerning  which  we 
sought  information.  There  were  no  wide  eaves  about 
his  house,  and  our  horses,  when  we  dismounted  there, 
took  the  storm.  His  wife  threw  old  gunny  sacks  over 
our  saddles  to  try  to  protect  them,  and,  this  done,  she 
roused  him  from  an  inner  room  where  he  was  sleeping. 
He  came  stumbling  out,  all  wrapped  in  quilts  in  rags, 
with  which  he  had  been  trying  to  keep  warm.  Dirt 
and  disorder  were  everywhere  in  that  house.  It  was 
a  human  pen.  The  coffee  cups  here  had  no  saucers, 
but  the  beverage  they  held  was  excellent.  I  see  again 
the  bohio  at  which  we  paused  near  Omaja.  The  most 
precious  possession  here  was  a  chocolate  drop  of  a 
grandchild  kicking  arms  and  legs  into  the  air  from  a 
mat  upon  the  floor.  I  see  the  hut  on  the  Paso  Estancia 
tract  where  we  stopped,  below  the  neglected  cornfield. 
There  was  a  pile  of  charcoal  in  bags  in  the  corner.  A 
whole  flock  of  chickens  raised  dust  in  the  dooryard, 
where  a  great  bougainville  vine,  uplifting  itself  like  a 
tree,  spread  a  royal  wealth  of  bloom.  The  woman 
here  was  alone,  her  husband  having  gone  to  work  as  a 
cutter  in  the  fields  of  a  distant  sugar  plantation.  I 
remember  one  other  home,  a  five  or  six-room  frame, 
with  a  thatch  roof,  board  floors,  a  red  cloth  on  the  table, 
and  iron  beds  to  be  seen  in  the  rooms  off  the  central 
living  room.  The  father  here  was  part  French.  The 
family  about  him  was  his  pride,  especially  the  daughters, 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Comyany 

A  Country  Family  in  Gala  Array 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 


•  •     •  •  I 


ROME    LIFE  129 

—  bright,  rosy,  black-eyed,  half -grown  girls,  —  one 
of  whom  was  learning  a  little  English.  The  father, 
keen  as  he  was  in  every  other  respect,  —  for  this  man 
owned  land  and  cattle  and  many  plantings,  —  was 
unable  to  judge  Americans,  and  extended  where  it  was 
not  merited  a  confidence  the  unworthy  object  of  it 
had  boasted  he  proposed  to  abuse. 

I  recalled  as  I  looked  at  him,  his  wife,  and  his  too 
innocent  girls,  rocking  back  and  forth  in  the  living 
room  where  they  received  me,  another  family,  very 
like  this  in  enterprise,  standing,  and  appearance.  They 
lived  on  the  outskirts  of  Havana,  and  I  came  to  know 
them  when  they  figured  as  principal  parties  in  a  sen- 
sational trial  for  manslaughter.  During  the  starving 
times  of  the  Reconcentration  this  father  took  into  his 
family  (there  were  already  more  mouths  about  his 
board  than  he  could  keep  well  filled)  a  young  boy  he 
found  as  good  as  dying  in  the  streets.  This  lad  he 
treated  as  a  son,  and  he,  when  he  was  about  twenty, 
returned  the  benefits  received  by  seducing  the  young- 
est girl  of  the  family  he  should  have  considered  sacred 
as  his  own.  All  his  cronies  heard  from  him  of  his  suc- 
cess, and  the  secret  of  the  girl  child's  dishonor  became 
pubhc  property.  Her  father,  however,  the  last ,  to 
learn,  still  shared  his  roof  with  the  renegade,  until, 
evidently  to  escape  his  sweetheart's  entreaties  that  he 
fulfil  his  promises  and  marry  her,  the  young  man  left 
the  house,  having  sought  the  pretext  of  a  quarrel. 
When  the  father  complained  of  this  loss  of  his  son  (for 
so  he  considered  him)  the  neighbors  told  him  how  well 
rid  he  was  of  the  traitor.  The  afternoon  he  heard  of 
the  facts  the  father  left  his  work  in  the  quarries  and 
came  home  at  once.  He  called  his  daughter  into  a  shed 
outside  the  house,  and  questioned  her  as  to  the  truth  of 


130  CUBA 

the  matter.  She  confessed  her  fault,  on  her  knees, 
and  told  him  all  the  pitiful  circumstances.  He  raised 
her  to  his  heart,  and  as  she  wept  there  his  tears  mingled 
with  hers.  At  this  instant  there  reached  their  ears 
the  voice  of  the  young  man,  singing,  as  he  sat  on  the 
veranda  of  a  roadhouse  across  the  way,  a  song  in  which 
he  bragged  of  his  conquest.  The  father  cast  the  girl 
from  him,  ran  to  the  house,  seized  a  weapon,  and  shot 
the  singer  dead  as  he,  seeing  the  avenger  on  the  way, 
attempted  to  flee.  There  was  a  trial,  and  while  it 
dragged  along  the  father  chafed  in  prison.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  strange  proceedings  of  Cuban  courts, 
there  came  a  day  when  the  judges  (there  is  no  trial 
by  jury  here)  repaired  to  the  house  where  the  family 
lived.  They  noted  the  comparative  location  of  the 
shed,  the  room  where  the  revolver  was  kept,  and  the 
direct  route  the  angry  father  took  to  the  cafe  across  the 
road.  Then  they  shut  themselves  up  in  the  shed  where 
the  girl  and  her  father  had  been  at  the  moment  the 
singer's  voice  was  heard.  Meanwhile,  on  the  veranda 
of  the  cafe  a  white-faced  youth,  a  friend  of  the  family, 
touched  a  guitar  with  trembling  hands :  he  sat  just 
where  the  lover  had  sat,  and  at  a  signal  he  sang.  He 
sang,  —  not  for  a  man's  life,  for  the  maximum  penalty 
for  the  crime,  if  it  was  one,  was  fourteen  years'  imprison- 
ment, —  but  he  sang  for  a  man's  liberty  through  that 
long  period.  A  rock  crusher  was  at  work  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  from  the  road  by  the  river  below  came  the 
chug-chug  of  an  automobile  speeding  fast,  but  over 
and  above  all,  clear  and  readily  distinguishable  in  words, 
rose  the  high,  strained  voice  of  the  neighbor  boy,  sing- 
ing. No  man  ever  had  more  attentive  audience.  We 
of  the  press  stood  motionless  by  the  fence.  The  eldest 
son  of  the  family  was  by  the  gate,  close  to  the  shed 


HOME   LIFE  131 

door,  and  when,  again  at  a  signal,  the  singer  ceased, 
he  looked  at  us  triumphantly,  and  cried  :  ^^  You  heard  ? 
You  heard  ?^'  The  judges  came  filing  solemnly  from 
the  shed,  and  one,  at  sight  of  the  anxious  face  of  the 
daughter,  heavy-eyed  with  tears,  as  she  stood  in  the 
doorway,  nodded  his  head.  They  had  distinguished 
the  words  sung.  It  was  proven  that  the  father  could 
hear  the  taunt  that  supplied  the  final  impulse  to  his 
act.  A  light  sentence  was  passed  upon  him  (the  judges 
had  no  discretion,  according  to  law,  save  to  impose  it), 
and  the  moment  it  was  pronounced.  Governor  Magoon 
affixed  his  signature  to  a  pardon  already  prepared,  and 
the  father  came  home,  an  exonerated  man. 

Lax  as  their  morality  seems  sometimes,  these  people 
are  by  no  means  without  an  honor  they  defend. 

I  do  not  forget  an  incident  in  which  I  figured,  years 
ago,  in  a  manner  I  am  not  proud  to  look  back  upon.  I 
had  some  jewelry  stolen  from  a  box  in  my  room,  and, 
because  I  prized  the  trinkets  for  their  association  rather 
than  their  slight  value,  I  appealed  to  the  secret  police 
to  recover  them  for  me,  and  accused  my  black  wash- 
woman of  theft.  I  believed  that  she  alone  knew  where 
I  kept  the  key  to  my  box  from  which  she  had  seen  me 
many  times  get  the  money  for  her.  About  three  days 
later  I  received  a  call  from  a  noncommissioned  officer  in 
the  rural  guard,  a  man  about  three  shades  lighter  in  color 
than  the  woman.  He  upbraided  me  for  having  entered 
the  charge  against  her  on  shght  or  no  evidence;  he 
made  me  thoroughly  ashamed  of  myself.  He  described 
the  humiliation  I  had  occasioned  her,  for  the  police  had 
called  and  searched  her  premises,  —  while  all  the 
neighbors  looked  on  !  He  assured  me  that  I  must  be 
mistaken  (and  he  convinced  me  I  was,  whereupon  I 
called  off  the  police  and  continued  to  patronize  the 


132  CUBA 

laundress  without  any  further  comment  on  the  size  of 
her  bills),  and  as  sufficient  evidence  of  her  integrity  he 
told  me  :  ''Senorita,  she  has  been  my  woman  for  twenty 
years,  and  I  know  !''  It  was  a  rather  remarkable  cer- 
tificate of  character,  come  to  think  of  it,  but  I  accepted 
it. 

Similairly,  in  these  country  homes,  in  a  very  great 
many  cases  she  ''has  been  his  woman  for  twenty  years.'' 
The  omission  of  formalities  at  the  commencement  of 
their  life  together  does  not,  however,  cause  her  to  take 
a  back  seat  when  visitors  enter  through  her  door.  I 
see  her  thin,  brown,  keen  face  yet,  through  a  blue  haze 
of  cigarette  smoke  (for  in  such  a  frame  the  composite 
picture  hangs  in  my  memory) ;  sometimes  she  is  silent, 
and  sometimes  garrulous.  If  she  talks,  she  asks  ques- 
tions :  she  wants  to  know  the  relationship  between 
members  of  the  visiting  party.  Are  the  women 
married  to  the  men?  If  not,  of  course  they  expect 
to  be?  Or  are  the  gentlemen  brothers?  She  thinks 
she  sees  a  family  resemblance.  Finally,  if  she  is  very 
bold,  she  will  ask  me  curiously  how  in  the  world  I  get 
into  a  divided  skirt,  and  when  I  exhibit  the  cut  and 
fastening  of  that  garment,  she  will,  so  polite  is  she, 
pretend  to  admire  it,  although  it  outrages,  I  am  aware, 
every  fiber  of  her  peculiar  modesty.  Meanwhile,  her 
husband  (undersized  and  sinewy,  lean-jawed  and 
brown)  will  sit  up  very  stiff  in  his  hide-backed  chair 
and  answer  inquiries.  It  has  not  been  my  experience 
that  country  Cubans  feel  any  reluctance  to  give  what- 
ever information  is  requested,  so  far  as  they  possess  it. 
Neither  have  I  ever  been  intentionally  misinformed. 
They  will  tell  you  routes  and  former  names  and  history 
of  places  in  the  neighborhood,  and  talk  intelligently 
of   possibilities   of   cultivation    and    quality   of   land. 


HOME    LIFE  133 

If  you  ask  for  ^^ buried  treasure/'  as  I  always  do,  in 
hopes  to  start  a  folklore  story  from  cover,  they  will 
look  at  you  from  the  tail  of  their  eye  and  tell  you  how 
the  other  fellow  found  a  palm  tree  with  a  nail  driven 
into  it,  and,  when  he  went  later  to  investigate  that  sign, 
found  an  excavation  newly  dug  at  the  roots  in  the 
bottom  of  which  was  an  iron-rusted  square  from  which 
evidently  a  box  had  just  been  removed.  If  you  ask 
for  ghosts  (in  hopes  to  scare  up  a  legend),  they  will,  it 
has  been  my  experience,  laugh  at  you  or  look  at  you 
curiously  as  though  they  thought  you  not  quite  sane. 
I  have  never  got  a  ghost  story  or  a  legend  from  any 
country  resident ;  either  they  are  too  superstitious  or 
not  superstitious  at  all,  —  I  can't  determine.  If  you 
make  inquiry  into  their  views  on  the  political  situa- 
tion, they  will  shrug  their  shoulders  and  avoid  reply ; 
or  sigh  heavily  and  declare  that  politicians  ruin  the 
country ;  or  flatter  you  with  an  expressed  desire  for 
the  return  of  American  control ;  or  tell  you  it  was 
better  in  Spanish  days;  or  frankly  admit  they  don't 
know  or  care  anything  about  the  government,  being 
quite  too  busy  with  their  own  affairs. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FOREIGNERS   IN   CUBA 

hey  have  made  the  native  an  alien  in  his  own  country." 

—  From  "  Gem  of  the  Caribbean.'* 

In  the  open  country  Cubans  are  clearly  the  majority 
of  the  population  of  this  island,  yet  even  there  wherever 
a  bodega  (general  store,  but  especially  a  grocery)  stands 
at  a  crossroads,  one  finds  a  Spaniard  mopping  up  the 
counter,  across  which  he  sells  drinks,  provisions,  the 
commonest  hardware,  and,  perhaps,  hats,  shoes,  cheap 
print  cloth,  and  coarse  linen.  He  is  an  important  per- 
sonage because  he  also  lends  money,  and  when  con- 
ditions or  events  so  alarm  him  that  he  no  longer  advances 
cash  or  grants  credit,  his  district  knows  that  times  are 
hard.  He  charges  a  usurious  rate  of  interest,  there  being 
no  law  against  it ;  he  keeps  everybody  in  his  debt,  and  he 
pockets  the  profits  of  their  labor.  .He  buys  and  re- 
sells their  crops,  to  his  advantage,  actually  monopolizing 
what  little  trade  there  is  in  his  vicinity.  In  towns  and 
cities,  similarly,  the  Spanish  control,  I  believe,  commerce 
both  wholesale  and  retail.  They  are  the  merchants, 
large  and  small,  of  the  country,  and  constitute  the 
most  considerable  foreign  element  of  the  population. 

According  to  the  census  of  1907,  there  are  228,477 
foreigners  among  Cuba's  total  population  of  2,048,980 ; 
they  are,  that  is,  11.2  per  cent  of  the  whole,  a  gain  of 
only  .2  per  cent  since  the  former  census  (1899) .    Of  these 

134 


FOREIGN EBS    IN    CUBA  135 

foreigners,  185,393  are  Spaniards,  who  are,  therefore, 
81.1  per  cent  of  the  foreign  element.  More  than  half 
of  them  reside  outside  the  cities  of  the  island.  It 
would  be  instructive  to  know  what  proportion  of  the 
wealth  of  the  country  their  holdings  are.  It  must  be 
large.  They  own,  I  know,  about  one  fourth  of  the 
sugar  business.  TheyTiguf  e  big  in  the  second  greatest 
"industry  (tobaccoj.  They  are  wholesale  importers 
m  every  line,  and  they  are  the  retailers  of  merchandise. 
The  Spaniard  is  so  keen  a  business  man  it  is  commonly 
said  that  no  Jew  can  compete  with  him;  Americans 
who  have  had  transactions  with  him  laud  his  honesty, 
declaring  that  his  ''word  is  as  good  as  a  bond.''  They 
prefer  him  to  a  Cuban  in  every  business  relation. 

Certainly  the  Spaniard  is  a  willing  worker.  At  half- 
past  four  in  the  morning  on  our  street,  as  regularly 
as  the  Cathedral  bells  ring  forth  sonorously,  we  hear 
the  milkman  beating  on  the  door  of  the  nearest  cafe, 
rousing  the  sleepy  lads  from  their  cots,  spread  in  the 
corner  by  the  glass-covered  counter,  to  turn  out  and 
receive  the  milk.  By  the  time  the  earliest  customer  ap- 
pears for  his  matitudinal  cafe  con  leche  they  have  it  pre- 
pared for  him,  and  all  the  place  is  ready  for  the  day. 
Not  until  midnight  do  they  close  the  doors,  although 
by  eleven  o'clock  the  chairs  are  turned  legs  uppermost 
on  top  of  the  tables,  that  the  floor  may  be  cleaned. 
Whether  these  particular  boys  sweep  and  mop  late  at 
night  or  early  in  the  morning  I  have  not  observed,  but 
I  know  that  I  have  never  stayed  out  long  enough  or 
arisen  soon  enough  not  to  find  the  water  trickling  from 
under  some  cafe  door  to  the  accompaniment  of  splash- 
ings  and  the  swish  of  a  broom  within. 

''Dependents,"  as  they  call  the  clerks  in  establish- 
ments of  all  sorts,  here,  usually  reside  in  the  building 


136  CUBA 

where  they  work.  Sleeping  room  is  found  for  them 
somewhere,  in  the  hot,  low  entre  suelos,  behind  the 
counters  upstairs,  or  in  the  rear.  In  that  house,  too, 
they  usually  have  their  meals,  which  are  prepared  on  the 
premises  or  fetched  in.  There  is  a  tailoring  shop  on 
O'Reilly  Street  which  used  to  put  a  bar  across  its  front 
entrance  at  meal  time,  as  a  suggestion  that  customers 
were  not  to  disturb  the  clerks  passers-by  could  see  at  a 
table  laid  in  the  rear.  The  senior  partner  had  place  of 
honor  at  the  head,  and,  in  this  instance,  his  wife  sat  be- 
side him,  for  he  had  already  attained  the  dignity  of 
matrimony,  as  few  do  before  they  retire  from  business. 
From  him,  down  the  board,  ranged  all  the  clerks,  ac- 
cording, I  presume,  to  their  importance  in  the  firm,  for  I 
noticed  that  a  round-faced,  red-cheeked  'prentice  boy 
was  at  the  foot. 

If  the  partners  who  control  are  decent  and  agreeable 
men,  this  system  of  ^ living  in''  works  well  enough,  as  far 
as  the  individual  is  concerned,  for  then  the  '^  dependents  " 
are  happy  and  properly  fed.  I  remember  seeing  one  lot 
—  thick-muscled  roustabouts  of  a  wholesale  warehouse, 
they  were  —  at  breakfast  served  for  them,  at  a  cafe 
close  by  their  establishment  where  their  firm  boarded 
them  by  the  month.  They  were  laughing  uproariously 
at  a  monologue  delivered  by  the  wittiest  of  their  num- 
ber, as  they  put  away  a  bounteous  meal  which  looked 
appetizing.  Obversely,  it  is  quite  possible  for  his  su- 
periors to  make  a  clerk's  life  wretched  indeed ;  he  has 
no  escape  from  them  by  day  or  night. 

^^Dependents''  receive  a  stated  wage,  but  not  all  in 
cash ;  on  the  contrary ,  most  of  it  is  merely  placed  to  their 
credit  in  the  business,  and  the  only  complaint  I  have  not 
heard  made  against  the  system  is  of  dishonesty  in  this 
particular.     They  say  that  partners  in  control  do  not 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  137 

trifle  with  these  accounts  or  ever  fail  to  hand  over  the 
total  amount  due  if  some  one  man  decides  he  has  had 
enough  and  will  withdraw,  to  go  into  business  for  him- 
self, or  even  to  join  a  rival  establishment.  Few,  how- 
ever, do  so  withdraw,  I  am  told ;  they  prefer  to  let  their 
share  in  the  business  accumulate,  until,  perhaps,  some 
day  they  reach  a  chair  at  the  head  of  the  table  and  look  a 
long  way  down  the  board  and  through  years  passed,  to 
the  round-faced,  red-cheeked  'prentice  boy  at  the  foot, 
beginning  where  they  began.  Meanwhile  the  partners 
to  right  and  left  are  crowding  close  and  closer.  They 
expect  the  senior  member  to  retire,  and  so  he  does,  in 
due  season,  betaking  himself  and  his  profits  home,  ^'to 
the  Peninsula,  '^  there  to  marry  and  settle  down  to  ^4ive 
off  his  rents,''  with  a  buxom  Spanish  wife.  In  time, 
he  sends  his  son  to  some  friend  or  relative,  who  will  give 
him  the  'prentice  lad's  place  and  opportunity,  and  if  it 
be  in  a  cafe  he  works  his  father  will  have  taught  him,  ere 
his  landing,  that  all  tips  must  be  turned  into  the  savings 
box,  built  under  the  counter  for  the  purpose,  contents  of 
which  is  divided  equally  among  all. 

This  whole  system  is  a  survival  from  days  when  the 
Indies  were  far  indeed  from  homes  in  Spain.  Then 
parents  needed  to  commend  their  boys  who  sought  for- 
tunes ^^  in  the  colonies, "  to  kinsmen  or  fellow  townsmen, 
who  assumed  every  obligation  toward  them,  not  only  to 
see  them  started  in  business,  but  also  to  keep  them 
^^ straight"  in  every  regard ;  in  return,  they  must  ren- 
der service  and  tender  obedience  and  respect.  To  this 
day  ^^dependents''  are  not  free  to  leave  the  store  when 
their  work  is  done,  if  it  is  ever  done,  unless  it  be  their 
''night  off. "  Instead,  they  sit  in  the  store  doorway  and 
play  dominoes,  or,  if  they  are  young  and  ambitious,  ask 
and  readily  obtain  leave  to  attend  night  school  at  the 


138  CUBA 

particular  ^'regional  society''  as  a  member  of  which 
they  are  inscribed  before  ever  they  leave  the  govern- 
ment immigrant  station  at  Triscornia,  —  some  one  of 
the  several  mutual  protective  associations  organized 
among  Spaniards  according  to  the  province  from  which 
they  hail ;  his  society  will  educate  him,  permit  him  to 
attend  its  social  functions,  care  for  him  if  he  is  sick, 
and,  if  need  be,  bury  him  when  he  dies,  all  for  the 
insignificant  monthly  fee  of  a  dollar  or  a  dollar  and  a 
half. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  the  effect  of  this 
system  of  ^'living  in''  is  on  the  morality  of  Havana,  for 
instance,  where  it  prevails  largely.  I  have  heard  it 
alleged  that  the  ^^dependents''  of  town  support  certain 
disreputable  districts,  on  their  ^^ nights  off";  again,  I 
have  heard  this  denied.  Certainly,  they  cannot  marry 
until  they  have  reached  the  top  in  business,  for  if  they 
were  to  insist  upon  freedom  to  live  where  and  how  they 
choose,  the  wages  paid  them,  were  they  to  demand  these 
in  cash,  would  not,  even  if  they  held  their  jobs,  suffice 
for  their  needs  in  this  city  where  the  poorest  living  costs 
so  very  dear. 

The  entire  plan  is,  obviously,  an  anachronism;  it 
belongs  to  paternal  monarchy,  instead  of  the  days  of  a 
republic  which  calls  for  citizens,  and  not  ^^  dependents. " 
Already  it  is  no  longer  universal,  and  I  believe  that 
enforced  observation  of  the  newly  enacted  eight-hour 
labor-day  law  will  further  hasten  its  inevitable  disap- 
pearance from  modern  business  here. 

Then  the  little  'prentice  lad  will  be  trained  to  account 
to  himself  for  himself.  He's  the  proper  timber  to  with- 
stand responsibility,  whether  his  face  beams  at  you  over 
the  counter  of  a  cheap  grocery  or  comes  shining  up  your 
stairs  as  he  delivers  your  bundles  from  the  biggest  dry 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  139 

goods  emporium,  or  struggles  through  a  permanent  cloud 
of  grime  as  he  takes  your  order  in  his  dingy  shop  for  char- 
coal by  the  bag.  He's  always  cheerful  and  ^^  on  the  job/' 
He  wears  a  permanent  smile  induced  by  the  sheer  joy  of 
being  up  ^'and  doing.''  There  isn't  a  lazy  bone  in  his 
sturdy  body  nor  an  unwilling  muscle  in  his  short,  thick 
legs  that  have  worn  long  trousers  ever  since  they  wore 
any  at  all.  He  can  understand  your  Spanish  when 
everybody  else  has  failed,  or,  if  even  he  cannot  puzzle 
out  your  meaning,  he  will  offer  you  every  article  in  his 
shop,  item  by  item,  until  he  hits  upon  what  you  want. 
He  reads  ^^  Don  Quixote  "  and  El  Diario  de  la  Marina  by  a 
guttering  candle  if  he  can  get  no  other  light,  and  he  plays 
cards  all  day  on  Sunday.  Observing  him,  you  wonder 
that  ever  the  country  which  produced  him  lost  the  leader- 
ship of  the  world ;  probably  it  was  because  he  refused  to* 
stay  at  home,  but  insisted  instead  on  navigating  the 
Unknown  Sea,  on  being  first  to  scale  the  Andes,  and 
first  to  press  his  prow  through  Magellan's  Straits  into 
the  wide  Pacific.  If  you  look  him  over  for  faults,  you 
find  his  chiefest  is  women,  and,  in  what  seems  to  me 
remarkable  contradiction  with  most  glorious  passages 
of  his  history,  he  lacks  imagination.  If  the  Spaniard 
had  the  constructive  imagination  of  the  American,  in- 
stead of  merely  gathering  pesetas  together  off  the  counter 
of  a  corner  grocery  until  the  pile  looks  to  his  humble 
mind  like  a  fortune  on  which  to  retire,  he'd  put  the 
Yankee  out  of  the  running  in  way  of  trust  and  combine 
building,  for  assuredly  he  has  the  vigor,  the  energy, 
the  endurance,  and  the  determination,  —  but  he  cannot 
see  ahead  to  apply  them  beyond  the  details  of  his  daily 
task.  He  remains,  therefore,  a  drudge,  asking  little  and 
receiving  only  that. 

I  had  the  privilege  to  work,  once,  for  a  year,  among 


140  CUBA 

Spaniards  of  high  intellectual  and  social  rank.  The 
editor-in-chief  of  that  newspaper  —  the  oldest,  the 
most  influential  in  Cuba  —  was  the  very  personification 
of  the  same  paternalism  evident  in  thie  system  of  '^living 
in''  I  have  described.  He  has  an  immediate  family  of 
his  own,  —  a  tall  son,  and  little  ones,  handsome  daugh- 
ters, grown  and  smaller,  who,  despite  the  fact  that  he  is 
Spanish  through  and  through,  are  Cubans  and  so  they 
would  be  even  were  their  mother  not  also  a  Cuban,  as 
she  is.  It  is  pecuhar  that,  no  matter  how  intensely 
national  the  Spaniard  seems,  his  children  born  out  of 
Spain  belong  always  to  the  country  where  first  they  see 
the  light :  they  are  Cubans,  or  Mexicans,  or  Ecuadore- 
ans,  unlike  the  Englishman's  foreign-born  offspring,  who 
are  always  British,  and  the  American's,  who  are  usually 
^ven  more  obstreperously  American  than  he.  Outside 
his  immediate  family  Don  Nicolas  has  a  larger  family ; 
it  includes  every  employee,  no  matter  how  exalted  or 
how  humble,  connected  with  his  great  business  estab- 
lishment. From  each  he  exacts,  with  more  or  less  of  the 
personal  vanity  of  his  race,  marked  deference ;  it  is  so 
notably  his  due  that  all  pay  it  gladly.  In  exchange,  he 
extends  his  protection  to  all.  Is  one  imposed  upon  ? 
Tell  it  to  Don  Nicolas,  and  Don  Nicolas,  with  kindly 
hand,  metes  out  j  ustice.  Never  have  I  known  an  individ- 
ual for  whom  I  came  to  entertain  profounder  liking  or 
more  sincere  respect  than  this  same  handsome  old  man, 
fine-featured  and  white-haired,  who  wears,  sometimes, 
the  bright  ribbon  of  a  royal  order  across  his  breast.  Yet 
every  ideal  he  cherishes  seems  to  me  archaic.  He  is  in 
person  an  ^^enlightened  despot"  of  the  variety  I  studied 
about,  half  understandingly,  in  a  history  course  on  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  which  I  supposed  his  species 
contemporaneous.      He    has    made    the    heroes    and 


FOREIGNEBS    IN    CUBA  141 

heroines  of  certain  of  Morse  Stephens'  lectures  really 
intelligible  to  me  for  the  first  time. 

Paternalism  colors  his  outlook  in  every  direction. 
Because  it  is  a  paternal  institution  he  upholds  the  Church, 
endorsing  it,  not  so  much  for  himself  as  for  other  people. 
Because  it  was  a  paternal  government,  and  his,  he 
championed  Spanish  rule  in  Cuba;  he  came  out  for 
autonomy  only  when  that  was  the  last  recourse.  When 
Spain  was  forced  to  retire  definitely,  his  newspaper 
backed  up  the  American  Military  Government,  with 
many  a  backsliding  criticism,  however,  of  its  ways  and 
means,  for  these  seemed  remarkable  to  him.  Later, 
through  the  various  ups  and  downs  of  Cuban  politics  he 
has  invariably  supported  the  side  that  was  topmost.  His 
policy,  as  he  announces  it,  is  to  be  with  the  party  that 
controls,  or,  as  he  puts  it,  ^'to  uphold  the  existing  gov- 
ernment no  matter  what  it  may  be. ''  To  him,  opposi- 
tion to  the  existing  government  (and  he  confounds  gov- 
ernment with  administration  every  time)  is  unfilial.  I 
beheld  with  mortification  the  antics  of  his  editorial 
column  in  a  certain  troublous  period ;  it  would  have 
excited  then  the  contempt  of  an  American  public  and 
lost  the  paper  all  confidence  forever  after.  Don  Nicolas 
was  uncertain  who  held  the  whip  hand,  and  he  vacillated 
between  factions  till  Joseph's  coat  was  modest  com- 
pared with  our  record.  Yet  I  concluded  the  man  was 
not  to  be  censured  ;  his  mind  worked  that  way.  It  is 
this  same  paternalism  in  him  which  makes  the  Spaniard 
tolerant  of  ^^ graft'' ;  leaders  must,  he  thinks,  be  some- 
what rewarded  for  their  labor  in  supervising  the  led. 
That  public  office  is  a  public  trust  is  no  doctrine  of  his ; 
he  considers  it  a  private  privilege,  to  be  exploited  for 
the  benefit  of  himself  and  his  friends.  When  labor 
troubles  arise,  Don  Nicolas  through  his  paper  lectures 


142  CUBA 

the  workingmen  as  an  indulgent  parent  might  an  un- 
grateful son  ;  he  tells  them  a  deal  of  truth,  in  the  detail, 
and  they  break  his  windows  in  recognition  of  his  services, 
for  they  are  moderns,  and  have  been  known  to  mention 
^Hhe  principle  of  the  thing.''  They  talk  of  ^^ rights,'' 
and  he  of  ^'concessions."  Again  it  is  paternalism 
which  prompts  a  Spaniard  to  arm  himself  with  many 
letters  of  recommendation  whenever  he  desires,  for 
example,  a  government  job.  I  wish  I  had  a  dollar  for 
every  letter  of  recommendation  to  public  officials  I 
translated  into  English  during  the  Provisional  Admin- 
istration. They  asked  jobs  as  typewriters  for  girls  who 
were  orphaned  and  honest,  and  had  fathers  and  brothers 
in  all  the  uprisings  since  Lopez'  time,  —  but  not  ona 
mentioned  that  the  applicants  could  spell,  or  punctuate^ 
or  manipulate  a  machine;  they  asked  clerkships  for 
young  men  who  had  relatives  already  at  the  crib,  and^ 
small  children  to  support,  and  aged  parents  dependent,  * 

—  none  gave  any  qualifications  except  such  as  these. 
Patronage  —  patronage  !  They  actually  expected  the 
chap  who  worried  his  prospective  chief  with  the  most 
of  this  junk  to  carry  off  the  plum  !  Offices  are  considered 
plums,  that  fall,  not  to  the  fit,  but  to  the  favorites  of 
that  Great  Paternal  Power,  —  the  central  government, 

—  which  is  to  be  cajoled  and  hoodwinked  and  ''done" 
precisely  as  spoiled  children  impose  on  a  too  lenient 
'' governor."  Once  one  masters  the  truly  Spanish 
conception  of  the  whole  fabric  of  organized  society,  one 
understands  that  country's  and  Cuba's  decadence,  for 
from  Spanish  ancestry  Cubans  have  inherited  all  these 
points  of  view. 

My  time  on  the  Diario  de  la  Marina  was  a  course  of 
instruction  which  left  me  dizzy  indeed.  I  had  thought 
that  in  fifteen  years'  association  with  Latins  I  had  come 


FOBEIGNEBS    IN    CUBA  143 

to  understand  them;  now  I  know  that  I  shall  never 
comprehend  them,  nor  they  me.  I  heard  members  of 
that  staff  talk  as  though  they  were  the  sole  zealous 
support  of  Mother  Church  in  the  Americas ;  yet  I  never 
discovered  that  any  of  them  attended  mass,  except  by 
proxy  in  their  women  and  children.  Neither  did  they 
express,  or  feel,  any  resentment,  when,  as  regularly  oc- 
curs during  Holy  Week,  other  newspapers  printed  car- 
toons which  made  me,  who  am  unreligious  enough, 
goodness  knows,  cold  with  horror.  No  American  news- 
paper —  not  the  most  skeptical  and  critical  —  would 
dare  to  offend  the  public  with  pictures  as  stupidly 
sacrilegious  as  these.  I  observed  that  they  claimed  to 
consider  personal  honor  a  possession  of  exceeding  value, 
and  yet  I  saw  them  pass  over  unjustifiable  insult  directed 
at  their  very  home's  heart,  in  the  course  of  a  personal 
and  political  squabble,  in  reparation  for  which  an  Ameri- 
can would  have  sent  somebody  to  the  cemetery  before 
the  ink  was  dry  on  the  printed  calumny.  I  saw  them, 
on  another  occasion,  make  sport  of  their  own  delicate 
institution  of  duelling:  ^^an  affair  of  honor''  arose, 
they  considered  themselves  required  to  fulfill  the  for- 
malities, but  they  avoided  conflict  by  ludicrous  subter- 
fuge ;  still  that  inexplicable  honor  of  theirs  was  satisfied. 
I  heard  them  jest  at  the  money-mad  Yankee  and  his 
'^almighty  dollar,"  and  saw  them  drive  bargains  so  sharp 
no  Wall  Street  Jew  could  equal  them  for  edge.  And, 
withal,  I  came  finally  not  to  question  their  sincerity  in 
all  they  said  and  did  :  I  think  that  they  believed  them- 
selves. Therefore,  I  concluded  that  they  were,  individ- 
ually and  collectively,  a  problem  my  Anglo-Saxon 
intelligence  could  never  grasp.  I  believe  they  reached 
a  similar  conclusion  with  regard  to  me,  for,  on  one  occa- 
sion, they  ^^ wrote  me  up,"  and  I  was  surprised  to  learn 


144  CUBA 

that  my  major  shortcoming  consisted  in  that  I  walked 
Hke  a  man,  looked  neither  to  right  nor  to  left,  and  favored 
them  with  no  '  ^  silvery  cachinnations '  ^  during  office  hours ! 
From  which  they  deduced  that  the  masterful  and  mas- 
tering Yankees  were  about  to  crush  in  iron  grasp  the 
very  flower  and  essence  of  Spanish  sentiments  as  inter- 
twined about  the  heartstrings  of  Cuba  !  The  cleverest 
editor  on  the  staff  (an  essayist  of  the  admirable  variety 
disappearing  from  belles  lettres  in  English)  was  the  author 
of  the  piece.  Little  as  they  understood  me,  they  seemed, 
nevertheless,  to  put  a  value  on  my  work,  for  they  gave 
me  a  man's  title  and  a  man's  pay,  and  permitted  me 
upon  occasions  to  assume  full  responsibility.  They 
recognized  that  I  had  the  right  to  attend,  for  instance,  a 
certain  annual  dinner  to  be  spread  in  the  very  handsome 
reception  room  of  the  editorial  department.  Our  office, 
by  the  way,  was  beautiful,  —  tiled,  painted,  decorated 
with  chandeliers,  statuettes,  artificial  flowers,  and  por- 
traits. We  were  not  permitted  to  scatter  paper  upon 
the  sanctum  floor ;  by  so  doing,  in  my  novitiate,  I  in- 
curred the  only  rebuke  Don  Nicolas  ever  administered 
to  me.  I  was,  as  I  have  said,  entitled  to  go  to  that  din- 
ner because  it  was  an  editors'  dinner  and  I  was  one  (there 
were  about  three  editors  to  every  reporter,  on  that  staff) . 
All  the  day  preceding  the  festivity  those  unhappy 
Spaniards  stood  around,  on  one  foot  first  and  then  upon 
the  other,  unwilling  to  request  me  to  stay  away,  yet 
fearful  that  I  would  appear,  like  a  white  elephant,  at 
their  feast.  As  soon  as  it  dawned  upon  me  what  the 
difficulty  was,  I  removed  it  by  assuring  them  that,  al- 
though I  felt  honored  (as  indeed  I  did)  to  have  the 
privilege  of  being  present,  I  trusted  they  would  per- 
mit me  to  be  absent  upon  that  occasion.  I  had  never 
entertained  any  intention  of  being  present ;   I  had  not 


FOBEIGNERS    IN    CUBA  145 

supposed  they  could  imagine  I  would  want  to  be  the  only- 
woman  in  a  gathering  of  perhaps  half  a  hundred  men. 
Again,  at  a  time  when  I  was  acting  correspondent  for 
the  New  York  Herald,  Don  Pepe,  the  correspondent, 
being  absent  in  Hayti,  it  happened  that  a  representative 
of  that  paper,  the  late  Mr.  White,  visited  Havana,  and 
Don  Nicolas  desired  to  give  him  a  dinner,  at  the  Mira- 
mar.  I  had  not  anticipated  being  invited,  but,  despite 
what  must  have  been  the  promptings  of  his  mental  train- 
ing, Don  Nicolas  asked  me  to  be  present,  because  had 
I  been  a  man  doing  the  work  I  was  doing,  he  would  as- 
suredly have  done  so.  I  demurred,  fearful  of  being  a 
^^wet  blanket'' ;  he  requested  me  to  accept,  and  I  went, 
with  him,  his  managing  editor,  his  business  manager, 
and  his  son.  Not  so  much  out  of  gratitude  for  a  pleas- 
ant evening,  as  out  of  respect  to  the  marked  fairness  of 
mind  his  conduct  evidenced,  I  have  always  honored 
Don  Nicolas  more  because  of  that  one  trifling  incident 
than  for  any  other  act  of  his  of  which  I  know.  All  of 
that  paper's  staff  were  fair-minded,  —  it  strikes  me  as 
the  more  remarkable  the  more  I  consider  the  fact  that 
they  were.  They  received  me  on  a  footing  of  equality 
and  respect,  and  this  attitude  toward  me  they  consist- 
ently maintained  always,  although  I  moved  among 
them  as  no  decent  woman  of  their  own  would,  and  they 
saw  me  come  and  go  with  a  freedom  that  defied  every 
article  in  their  accepted  code  of  an  honest  woman's  con- 
duct. Everything  they  could  not  understand  they 
nevertheless  accepted  and  excused  as  ^Hhe  American 
custom,"  just  as  I,  trying  to  be  as  broad  as  they,  ceased, 
eventually,  to  judge  them  by  my  standards,  and  measured 
them  by  their  own.  Then,  indeed,  they  weighed  up  as 
not  wanting  in  any  particular.  Finally  when  I  desired 
to  leave  them  to  accept  another  position  they  forestalled 


146  CUBA 

me,  preventing  me  from  offending  them  by  doing  any- 
thing as  crude  as  that ;  they  granted  me,  instead,  inde- 
finite leave  of  absence,  without  pay  ! 

Only  one  other  individual  stands  out  to  my  mind  as 
I  review  the  distinguished  and  wealthy  Spanish  colony, 
and  he,  too,  is  an  editor,  a  man  so  bitterly  pro-Spanish 
in  every  struggle,  he  was  asked  why  he  had  remained 
behind  when  the  Evacuation  occurred.  It  was  on  the 
twentieth  of  May,  1902,  the  story  goes,  during  cere- 
monies establishing  the  Republic  of  Cuba,  that  the  in- 
quiry was  put,  and  he  is  said  to  have  replied,  with  an 
inclusive  gesture:  ^^I  remain  — to  attend  the  funeral 
of  this.  '^  Since  then  he  has  worked  with  an  admirable 
consistency  to  accomplish  that  event.  He  has  been  at 
intervals  the  friend  and  at  other  intervals  the  enemy  of 
each  passing  administration,  and,  after  every  catastro- 
phe, it  has  appeared  that  he  urged  all  sides  on  to  every 
possible  calamity.  Through  the  columns  of  his  paper 
he  emits,  now  and  then,  biting  criticism  ;  ^^we  Cubans'' 
smart  at  the  truth  of  it,  and  laugh  at  the  caustic  wit  he 
exercises.  San  Miguel  has  grown  rich  off  his  particular 
'^  sick  man.''  He  speculates,  uses  his  paper  to  influence 
stocks  and  to  obtain  concessions,  and  he  hires  it  out  to 
good  paymasters,  too,  for,  as  he  says,  ^^  When  La  Lucha 
dances  somebody  pays  the  fiddler."  He  was  elected, 
if  you  please,  a  representative  from  Pinar  del  Rio,  de- 
spite his  past  and  ever-present  record ;  his  own  amuse- 
ment at  this  must  have  been  intense.  He  took  the 
job  and  also  the  pay,  and  he  has  both  yet. 

Next  to  the  Spanish  the  Chinese  colony  (11,217)  is 
the  largest  in  Cuba.  These  Celestials  are  merchants, 
truck  gardeners,  and  day  laborers  in  the  sugarhouses 
of  the  great  plantations  whose  managers  ask  no  ques- 
tions as  to  where  the  constant  supply  afforded  them 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  147 

is  procured.     There  are  anti-Mongolian  immigration 
laws.  !\ 

Next  in  size  ranks  the  colony  of  the  African-born 
negroes  (7948).  These  are  almost  all  surviving  slaves, 
for  the  Census  shows  only  10  immigrants  from  Africa  in 
1902-1907.  My  acquaintance  with  these  is  limited  to| 
seeing  one,  an  old  man,  who  seemed  to  be  a  leader  in 
charge  of  an  African  cabildo,  which  used  to  hold  forth  onj 
Sunday  afternoons  from  one  to  four  o^ clock  in  a  house 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  suburb  of  Cerro.  It  was  a  social- 
religious  organization  licensed  by  the  municipality  un- 
der a  name  in  which  figured  that  of  a  Catholic  saint. 
When  we  attended  its  dance,  we  were  accompanied  by 
a  member,  a  mulatto,  the  leader  of  an  orchestra  well 
known  in  Havana.  Before  we  reached  the  house  we 
heard  the  nervous  beat  of  the  drum  which  takes  the  place 
of  the  tomtom,  forbidden  by  law,  and  the  accompany- 
ing rattle  of  gourds  shaken  up  and  down  inside  a  beaded 
net.  Three  young  negroes  standing  on  a  bench  ma- 
nipulated the  gourds ;  another,  seated  below  them, 
pounded  the  drum  in  maddening  rhythm.  The  music 
was  unquestionably  African.  In  the  open  space,  on 
the  stone  floor,  before  the  players,  members  of  the  organ- 
ization danced,  not  together,  but  singly,  jerking  and 
gesticulating  in  a  circle,  round  and  round.  They  sang 
in  an  African  dialect.  We  were  told  that  one  song, 
movements  to  which  simulated  a  snatching  from  above, 
was  a  prayer  to  Saint  Barbara  for  blessings.  In  an  ad- 
joining room  we  were  shown  altars.  One  was  to  Our 
Lady  of  Mercy,  one  to  Saint  Joseph,  and  one  to  Saint 
Barbara,  at  the  base  of  whose  shrine  was  an  iron  image 
of  a  black  jockey  such  as  used  to  stand,  before  good  taste 
made  them  scarce,  on  sidewalks  before  houses  in  the 
North  as  hitching  posts.     These  altars  were  decorated 


\ 


148  CUBA 

with  cheap  hangings  and  tawdry  trinkets,  which  had, 
probably,  their  secret  meanings.  In  another  room,  in 
which  also  was  a  bed  elaborately  trimmed  with  yellow 
satin  and  ribbon,  was  an  altar  to  the  Virgin  of  Cobre. 
There  were  dishes  of  food  before  it,  in  the  process  of 
being  blessed,  I  gathered,  and  there  was  a  covered  soup 
tureen  we  were  given  to  understand  held  a-  holy  secret. 
We  returned  to  the  dancing  in  time  to  see  one  apt  per- 
former throw  a  fit.  ''The  saint''  had  entered  into  her. 
Immediately  other  women  unbound  her  hair  and  re- 
moved her  shoes.  They  hustled  her  into  the  other 
room  and  returned  her  clad  in  a  garment  which  seemed 
to  imitate  the  robes  altar  images  of  the  Virgin  and 
saints  wear.  She  wore  gold  and  brass  bracelets  which 
jingled  as  she  danced  forth.  She  proceeded  to  salute  all 
present  by  throwing  her  arms  about  the  shoulders  of  men 
and  women  alike,  one  after  the  other,  kissing  them  on  the 
cheek,  if  they  were  women,  and  rubbing  each  of  her 
shoulders  to  each  of  theirs,  in  turn,  if  they  were  men. 
As  she  went  she  collected  offerings  of  pennies  and  dimes. 
She  approached  us,  and  with  more  or  less  good  grace  we, 
too,  submitted  to  these  caressings.  It  seemed  to  me  the 
frenzied  creature  took  a  particular  delight  in  seizing 
hold  of  one  of  our  number,  a  very  precise  and  very  relig- 
ious young  woman  from  Kentucky,  whose  face  fairly 
froze  with  horror  as  she  was  smacked  soundly  on  both 
cheeks.  We  were  told  that  sometimes  in  this  condition 
of  hysteria  those  who  had  ''the  sainf  prophesied  and 
prescribed  remedies  for  the  sick.  Later,  I  asked  police 
headquarters  to  tell  me  exactly  what  this  cabildo  was,  and 
learned  that  it,  and  organizations  like  it,  are  all  the  law 
allowed,  at  that  time,  of  the  old  nanigo  clans.  It  was, 
as  it  were,  the  threshold  beyond  which  lie  their  nefarious 
mysteries  and  the  trickery  of  witchcraft. 


FOBEIGNERS    IN    CUBA  149 

The  nanigo  clans  were,  I  understand,  a  revival  in 
Cuba  of  tribes  that  existed  in  Africa.  I  am  not  suffi- 
ciently informed,  nor  is  there  space  here,  to  tell  of  their 
objects,  their  rites,  and  known  and  suspected  rami- 
fications. There  was  a  time  when  on  ^Hhe  Day  of 
Kings ''  their  leaders  were  actually  received  in  the  palace 
of  the  governor-general ;  on  that  date  their  bands 
paraded  the  street,  and  whites  kept  within  closed  doors. 
They  had  their  jealousies,  and  members  of  rival  clans 
killed  and  were  killed  in  the  public  streets.  One  Spanish 
governor  collected  all  their  paraphernalia  and  boasted 
that  he  had  persuaded  them  to  disband.  The  police 
force  of  the  American  Government  of  Occupation  de- 
clared that  it  had  suppressed  them.  The  spontaneity 
with  which,  during  one  carnival  season  not  long  ago, 
certain  groups  of  maskers  appeared  upon  the  streets, 
leads  an  observer  to  suspect  that  neither  was  successful. 
Later  still,  after  two  white  children  had  been  killed  and 
cut  up  by  ^^ witch  doctors'^  in  the  country,  and  the  per- 
petrators of  the  crimes  caught  and  convicted,  the  Pro- 
visional Administration  grew  critical  of  even  such 
societies  as  that  we  visited.  I  venture  to  say,  however, 
that,  openly  or  secretly,  they  still  exist,  and  if  ever  there 
is  a  negro  uprising  in  Cuba  they  will  play  their  promi- 
nent part. 

Yet  not  all  their  members  are  negroes.  Our  guide  was, 
as  I  have  said,  a  mulatto.  He  was  an  officer  in  the  or- 
ganization, and  as  such  those  entering  after  he  had  ar- 
rived saluted  him.  One  pretty  young  girl,  who  might 
have  ^^ passed  for  white''  in  her  clean  lawn  dress  with 
blue  sash  and  neck  ribbons  he  compelled  by  a  glance 
to  do  as  the  rest,  —  to  throw  herself  prone  on  the  floor 
before  him,  and  turn  from  hip  to  hip.  We  had  no  man- 
ner of  knowing  what  immoralities  lay  behind  many  of 


150  CUBA 

the  suggestive  details  we  noticed.  Taken  at  its  sur- 
face value,  the  perf onnance  we  saw  that  afternoon  was  a 
demonstration  of  fanaticism  and  ignorance  it  would  be 
hard  to  equal  anywhere.  It  was  the  most  astounding 
confusion  of  heathenish  and  Catholic  worship  one  could 
imagine :  they  sang  in  barbarous  tongue  ta  Christian 
saints,  and  to  them  they  sacrifice  white  cocks  occasion- 
ally ;  in  the  dances,  which  must  have  originated  about 
African  campfires,  they  flaunt  yellow  as  the  color  of  Our 
Lady  of  Cobre,  white  for  Mary  of  Mercies,  purple  and 
green  for  Saint  Joseph,  and  red  for  the  favorite  saint,  pro- 
tecting Barbara,  each  of  whom  has  an  African  name. 
In  honor  of  these  respective  patrons  they  wear  copper, 
silver,  bead,  and  coral  trinkets.  The  local  Catholic 
church  recognizes  this  same  symbolism,  in  color  and  in 
ornament. 

The  American  colony  ranks  next  to  the  native  African 
\in  size;  it  numbers  only  6713  individuals  for  all  the 
pland.  These  in  themselves  or  in  representation  of 
rincipals  own  a  good  third  of  the  sugar  business,  and  a 
lep^ding  railway ;  what  mines  are  in  operation  ;  some  few 
flourishing  tobacco  vegas  ;  and  they  control  ^Hhe  trusf 
cigar  and  cigarette  factories  ;  they  are  the  constructing 
engineers  and  architects  of  the  country,  and  do  consid- 
erable business  in  boots  and  shoes,  lumber,  agricultural 
implements,  machinery,  and  many  things  besides. 
Outside  of  the  cities  they  are  scattered,  singly  and  in 
little  colonies,  from  Pinar  del  Rio  to  Palmarito ;  they 
grow  some  pineapples,  a  few  vegetables,  and  citrus  fruit, 
but  are  as  yet  a  small  factor  in  agriculture,  except  in 
sugar.  Their  industrial  importance,  as  a  whole,  is, 
however,  immense,  partially  because  of  the  political 
importance  inherent  in  it. 

In  Havana  itself  they  reside  "upstairs"  because  they 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  151 

consider  lower  floors  damp  and  unhealthy,  and  to  what- 
ever quarters  they  affect  their  wives  strive  to  impart 
something  of  home,  or,  if  they  have  no  wives  or  these  re- 
fuse to  accompany  them  in  Cuba,  details  of  their  com- 
fort or  discomfort  are  left  with  the  landlady. 

The  boarding  houses  of  Havana,  even  as  Americans 
(who  demand  the  best  wherever  they  go)  find  them, 
are  the  saddest  institutions  that  I  know.  The  best 
rooms  to  be  had  are  big,  with  ''balconies  to  the  street,'' 
as  the  advertisements  always  mention,  or  windows  over- 
looking a  patio.  If  one  rooms  alone  (paying  from  $15 
to  $25,  American  money,  monthly),  there  is  but  one  bed, 
a  black  iron  frame,  in  the  corner,  without  mattress  on  its 
springs,  which  are  thinly  spread  with  a  pad,  perhaps,  or 
a  quilt,  sheets,  a  counterpane,  white  or  gorgeously 
colored,  and  a  pillow  stuffed  with  ''tree  cotton,'' 
sour  smelling  and  in  lumps.  Over  all  hangs  a  mosquito 
netting  of  always  doubtful  cleanliness,  tied  back  with 
tape  or  ribbons ;  the  more  elaborate  the  bows  which 
hold  it  are  the  more  suspicious  of  the  bed  do  I,  for  one, 
become.  There  is  a  table,  marble-topped,  usually,  and 
uncertain  on  its  legs.  There  is  a  wardrobe  and  a  dresser, 
and  they  never  match.  The  floor  is  of  black  and  white 
marble  blocks,  or  fancy  tiles,  or  glazed  red  brick,  or  un- 
glazed  redder  brick,  which  rubs  off.  There  is  a  scant  rug 
or  piece  of  matting  before  the  bed.  The  walls  about  are 
whitewashed,  or  tinted  a  brilliant  blue,  with  a  wainscot- 
ting,  colored  on,  in  hues  that  clash.  To  reach  this 
chamber  one  probably  passes  through  the  sitting  room 
or  the  dining  room  of  the  family  who  rent,  up  rickety 
stairs  and  along  a  balcony  upon  which  the  rain  drips 
from  the  eaves.  The  bathroom  is  in  some  distant  part 
of  the  house,  usually  near  the  kitchen.  Its  shower 
drizzles  into  a  painted  tub,  on  the  inside  of  which  an  in- 


152  CUBA 

quisitive  finger  rubs  up  the  dirt  in  rolls.  If  one  takes 
one's  meals  ^4n/'  they  are  served,  perhaps,  at  a  very 
long  table  on  a  cheap  white  cotton  cloth  ;  the  dishes  are 
thick  and  the  glasses  foggy.  There  is  soup  at  noon  and 
at  night,  and  fried  eggs  with  rice,  always,  for  ^^break- 
fast,'' followed  by  ^'bifstek"  and  fried  potatoes;  at 
night  the  meat  is  baked.  The  bread  is  hard,  and  comes 
in  ^^  flutes "  so  long  and  thin  it  is  a  time-worn  joke  to  sug- 
gest that  it  is  purchased  by  the  yard ;  one  finds  a  sec- 
tion at  his  plate  at  each  meal,  and,  if  it  is  not  enough, 
the  waiter  offers  other  similar  sections  from  a  basket. 
The  people  about  one,  if  they  are  Spaniards  and  Cubans, 
vociferate  and  gesticulate  and  argue  in  mixed  company 
sometimes  on  most  indelicate  subjects.  If  one  takes 
one's  meals  ^^out, "  one  learns  to  know  that  one  restau- 
rant serves  the  best  fritters,  and  another  has  baked  ap- 
ples on  Thursday  at  noon,  or  baked  beans  on  Tuesday, 
or  fresh  fried  fish  all  the  time  ;  one  learns  too  to  discrim- 
inate in  favor  of  those  which  do  not  charge  five  cents 
extra  for  bread,  and,  if  one  is  wise,  one  eschews  butter, 
for  ^'  south  of  Key  West, "  as  the  parody  runs,  ^Hhe  best 
is  like  the  worst." 

Of  course  there  are,  now,  hotels  one  may  patronize 
if  he  can  afford  it.  Then  he  approaches  his  room  via 
a  lobby,  an  elevator,  a  pleasant  corridor,  but,  once 
within,  he  finds  little  comfort  even  here.  The  walls 
are  a  little  whiter,  the  space  a  little  smaller,  the  bed  has 
brass  trimmings  at  least,  a  mattress,  and  a  netting  if 
he  demands  it ;  the  bathroom  is  nearer,  but  he  had 
better  keep  his  finger  off  the  inside  the  tub.  When 
he  comes  to  his  meals  he  may  have  a  table  to  himself, 
and  from  the  bill  of  fare  choose  dishes,  not  much  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  boarding  table ;  he  can  only 
control  their  number  and  the  order  of  their  appearance. 


FOBEIGNERS    IN    CUBA  153 

In  exchange  for  few  additional  privileges,  he  pays,  — 
he  pays.  There  are,  too,  some  few  thoroughly  Ameri- 
can boarding  houses,  where,  for  a  price  above  the  first 
I  have  described  and  a  little  below  the  hotel's,  one  may 
get  whatever  comfort  and  cheer  its  overworked  mistress 
is  able  to  impart.  Despite  the  rates  she  charges,  she 
makes  no  profits  dull  summer  months  do  not  eat  up. 
Some  of  these  establishments  are  truly  pleasant,  and 
in  them  a  resident  or  a  visitor  is  lucky  to  find  a  niche. 
Still  others  have  a  general  tone  which  becomes  so 
wearing  that  its  patrons,  after  a  short  sojourn,  betake 
themselves  gladly  into  the  isolation  of  some ''native'' 
bordin. 

The  life  of  the  man  or  woman  who  must  board  in 
Cuba  has  little  attraction.  Those  who  live  it  stay, 
and  endure,  only  because  they  are  paid,  and  well  paid, 
to  stand  its  loneliness  and  petty  annoyances.  They 
are  usually  the  local  representatives  of  American  busi- 
ness concerns,  clerks,  and  stenographers.  They  earn 
from  $80  a  month,  which  the  ''English  only"  stenog- 
rapher and  t^^pewriter  considers  very  poor  pay  indeed, 
to  $100  or  even  $125  paid  to  the  "English-Spanish" 
stenographer,  or  extra  competent  clerk,  up  as  far  as 
$200  and  $300  "and  commissions,"  maybe,  coming  to 
the  agent  of  the  little  steamship  line,  or  the  machinery?- 
manufacturer,  or  the  wholesale  dealer  in  sheet  tinfoil. 
No  matter  what  amount  he  draws  on  pay  day,  the 
American  finds  that  it  goes  fast,  and  the  chap  among 
the  lot  who  saves  is  a  phenomenon.  The  lad  who 
loses,  and  sometimes  wins,  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  a 
clip  on  Jai  Alai  is  easier  to  locate.  The  money  comes 
easy  and  it  goes  easy.  One's  room  is  no  place  to  stay ; 
the  sitting  room  below,  if  there  is  one,  is  no  more  invit- 
ing, unless  the  landlady's  daughter  is  pretty,  and  then 


154  CUBA 

it  is  dangerous.  Amusements  are  few.  The  theaters 
are  hot  and  the  plays  poor.  It  is  an  exertion  to  attend 
outing  parties,  —  even  to  get  to  the  bathing  beach  on 
Sundays.  Friends  Uve  at  distances,  scattered  over  the 
city  and  suburbs.  It  is  hard  work,  and  dull  work,  even 
to  call.  The  easiest  thing  to  do  is  to  loaf  in  a  cafe, 
svhere  the  other  fellows  are  doing  likewise,  or  to  join  a 
/poker  crowd  in  somebody's  room  or  at  the  Club.  If 
one  loafs  in  a  cafe  it  comes  natural  to  drink  something. 
It  takes  very  little  liquor  in  only  a  very  shallow  cup 
to  drown,  here  in  Cuba,  even  an  able  man's  chances  for 
real  and  lasting  advancement.  Unfortunate  indeed 
is  the  young  man  who,  on  coming  to  Cuba,  finds  an 
easy  job  in  Havana  itself ,  and  never  progresses  further 
than  the  Ambos  Mundos  or  the  Cafe  Aleman. 

Profitless  as  life  then  becomes  for  a  man,  it  is  worse 
yet  for  a  woman,  —  for  the  stenographer,  for  instance, 
who  works  for  the  agent  along  with  the  clerk.  The 
stenographer  lives  on  a  roof,  at  the  top  of  an  endless 
stair  that  leads  up  from  the  patio  of  a  boarding  house. 
She  has  one  room ;  its  walls  are  shining  white,  with 
blue  trimmings.  There  is  one  high  window  and  two 
doors  opening  on  the  flat  tiled  azotea  which  is  the  top 
of  that  three-story  building.  Her  bed  is  a  couch  in  the 
daytime,  hidden  under  a  bright-colored  cover  and  a  pile 
of  sofa  cushions.  There  are  pictures  everywhere,  of 
everything,  from  chromo  calendar  tops  with  the  ad- 
vertisements cut  away,  to  Copley  prints  and  water- 
color  originals  and  pen-and-ink  sketches  by  artists 
the  stenographer  has  known.  Her  dresser  wears  a 
white,  lace-fringed  scarf,  and,  with  its  array  of  cushions 
and  ebony  and  silver  toilette  articles,  is  not  the  least 
attractive  piece  of  furniture  in  her  apartment.  There 
is  a  typewriter  in  one  corner  and  a  sewing  machine  in 


FOBEIGNERS    IN    CUBA  155 

the  other,  and  small  cups  and  saucers  and  tin  boxes  of 
crackers  and  candles  on  a  tea  table  in  the  third; 
the  fourth  is  curtained  off,  and  sometimes  a  ruffle  or  a 
ribbon  or  an  edge  of  lace  protruding  proclaims  that 
this  is  her  wardrobe.  Her  washstand  is  banished  to 
the  limbo  which  is  behind  that  curtain,  along  with  her 
trunk.  There  are  plenty  of  big  chairs,  and  the  doors 
of  the  room  are  always  open  so  a  good  wind  whips 
through,  and  sometimes  there  comes  with  it  the  perfume 
of  flowers  from  the  little  collection  of  potted  plants 
standing  about  on  the  roof  which  is  her  garden  floor 
outside.  She  gets  her  meals  where  she  finds  them  best, 
or,  wearied  sometimes  of  hunting  for  them,  she  has  them 
sent  in,  in  white  enameled  dishes  that  fit  together  like 
a  tall  white  can,  from  some  near-by  kitchen,  which  for 
about  $10  a  month  will  furnish  her  the  noon  '^break- 
fast'' and  dinner.  Few  visitors  come  to  the  stenog- 
rapher's roof  except  other  girls  who  work  and  fellow 
clerks  in  their  own  or  similar  offices,  among  whom  one 
calls  oftener  and  oftener,  until  the  rest,  when  they  do 
happen  up,  feel  like  '^  a  crowd,"  and  thereafter  stay  away. 
Together,  then,  two  sit  in  the  still  silver  light  of  a  won- 
derful tropic  moon  hung  like  a  special  glorious  lantern 
in  the  zenith  just  above  them,  and  under  its  solitary 
eye  they  are  quite  as  well  behaved  as  though  each  tall 
cement  basket  that  ornaments  the  fence-like  top  of  the 
house's  street  fagade  were  the  most  carping  of  chap- 
erons. He  invites  her  to  go  to  Malecon  to  hear  the 
band ;  to  dine  with  him,  at  some  fair  restaurant ;  to 
attend  some  special  performance  at  the  theater,  and 
then  she  wears  the  fluffy  and  lace-trimmed  dresses 
she  has  made  for  herself  at  trifling  cost,  and  a  hat 
wonderfully  fashioned  out  of  the  flounce  of  a  last 
year's  party  dress,  shirred  on  a  wire  frame  that  cost  a 


156  CUBA 

dollar,  with  an  ostrich  feather  added  to  it,  which  her 
Aunt  Susan  at  Pasadena  sent  her  three  Christmases 
ago.  The  only  fly  in  her  clear  ointment  these  days 
is  the  knowledge  (though  she  says  she  doesn't  mind) 
that  a  couple  of  score  of  other  American  women  who 
do  not  know  her  or  understand  her  ways  are  asking 
each  other  with  a  certain  accent,  ^^And  who  is  Miss 
Jones?''  They  are  blaming  her  for  living  in  the  only 
way  she  can  endure  to  live  :  before  she  took  to  the  roof 
she  tried  ^Hhe  cultured  Spanish  family"  who  rent 
^^one  airy  room,"  —  ^Preferences  exchanged"  ;  and  also 
the  big  Cuban  boarding  house  on  Industria  near  San 
Rafael;  and  ^Hhe  pleasant  front  room"  off  Mrs. 
Smith's  parlor,  as  announced  in  the  Havana  Post.  She 
has  climbed  to  the  roof  in  desperation  and  usually  seen 
to  it  that  there  are  no  other  Americans  in  the  house, 
either ;  she  has  insisted  upon  a  latchkey,  and  made  it 
plain  that  she  proposes  to  use  it  at  any  hour  she  will. 
She  has  also  announced  to  the  landlady  that  she. ex- 
pects to  receive  visitors  in  her  room,  —  men,  women, 
and  children,  as  they  come,  and  when  they  come.  ''It 
is  the  American  custom."  This  goes  well  enough  for 
a  year  or  two,  and  then,  either  he  suggests  that  they 
happen  across  to  Key  West  and  ''  tie  up  "  on  the  strength 
of  a  recent  raise  he^s  received  ;  or  a  relative  in  the  North 
falls  ill  and  summons  the  stenographer ;  or,  without 
any  apparent  reason  for  so  doing,  she  drifts  away,  to 
Mexico,  to  South  America,  to  Europe,  or  home,  with  a 
second  language  and  a  little  money  to  show  for  her 
residence  in  Havana,  —  for  she  has  learned  Spanish, 
and  saved  from  her  salary  during  her  stay. 

Or  it  has  happened  that  it  was  not  a  clerk,  but  ''the 
boss"  himself,  who  frequented  her  azotea,  and  took  her 
to  dine  at  no  merely  fair  restaurant,  but  to  the  very  best 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  157 

there  is,  which  considerably  increased  the  agitation  of 
the  ladies  of  Vedado,  —  ^^for  he  is  such  a  nice  man, 
you  know/^  One  day  the  stenographer  decides  to  go 
home.  About  a  month  later  ^Hhe  boss'^  follows,  ^^on 
business,^'  and  a  little  later  still  one  reads  in  ''Brief 
City  News''  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Richard  Doe 
were  among  passengers  arriving  yesterday  on  the  Ward 
Line  steamer.  They  decide  to  carry  the  war  right  into 
the  enemies'  country :  they  rent  a  house  in  Vedado, 
on  the  hill,  which  is  the  choicest  section  of  that  aristo- 
cratic suburb,  with  a  view  of  Old  Ocean  and  Morro 
from  its  veranda,  and  a  lovely  outlook  on  the  sunset 
over  Chorrera  to  be  had  from  the  dining  room  door. 

The  bride's  girl  friends  in  the  North,  when  they  read 
of  her  wedding  and  honeymoon  return  to  the  South, 
imagine  her  ensconced  in  a  bungalow  cottage  ''in  the 
shade  of  the  sheltering  palm"  or  "under  the  bamboo 
tree."  She  knows  that  one  must  be  a  strenuous  acro- 
bat to  chase  the  shade  of  a  palm  around  its  bole,  and, 
furthermore,  that  the  bamboo  is  not,  as  far  as  appear- 
ances go,  a  tree.  She  is  not  surprised  to  find  her  new 
home  in  Vedado  a  solemn,  one-story,  rectangular  con- 
struction of  stone  and  mortar,  with  no  amiable  nooks 
or  corners  in  evidence  anywhere.  Outside  it  is  plainly 
plastered  and  colored  a  bearable  buff,  or  a  delicate 
pink,  or  sea  green,  or  sky  blue.  The  windows  are  set 
in  even  rows ;  their  regularity  reminds  her  of  pictures 
children  draw  with  the  aid  of  rulers  at  their  earliest 
artistic  age,  labeling  them:  "This  is  a  house."  The 
door  will  be  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  front,  and  the 
windows  distributed  with  mathematical  precision  from 
that  as  a  starting  point.  These  windows  are  large,  and, 
as  is  usual  in  Cuba,  without  glass  panes.  They  are 
equipped  with  iron  bars,  or  a  fancy  grille,  which  is 


158  CUBA 

painted  white  or  blue ;  there  are  wooden  shutters 
colored  to  match,  and,  inside  of  these,  solid  wooden 
blinds  to  close  when  it  rains.  She,  being  acquainted 
with  Havana,  is  not  struck  with  the  absence  of  a  chim- 
ney in  her  house,  as  in  all  the  rest  she  overlooks  from 
its  eminence  on  the  hill. 

This  new  home  of  hers  probably  stands  boldly  out 
in  the  middle  of  a  treeless  lot  on  grassless  ground  where 
still  are  piled  the  scraps  of  stone,  the  heaps  of  sand, 
and  all  the  driblets  of  mortar  scattered  by  the  work- 
men who  built  it  there.  She  will  not  find  a  single  vine 
entwined  on  the  fancy  iron  railings  of  the  fence  about 
that  small  desert.  But  the  house  next  door  stands 
embowered  in  green,  and  from  it  she  takes  comfort. 
With  it  before  her  as  encouragement  she  bullies  her 
landlord  and  browbeats  him  into  some  sort  of  coopera- 
tion, or,  failing  of  this,  entirely  at  her  own  expense  she 
has  the  trash  removed  from  her  lot,  and  she  buys  rich 
red  soil  to  spread  over  its  poor  foundation.  In  this 
dirt  she  will  eventually  succeed  in  growing  crotons, 
with  gay  bright  leaves,  and  possibly  some  roses,  to- 
gether with  creepers  all  along  her  fence  and  over  her 
veranda,  but  she  will  not  succeed  in  covering  her  red 
dirt  with  a  lawn  unless  she  can  afford  to  hire  a  very 
skillful  gardener.  Between  the  rows  of  her  little  plants 
it  will  continue  to  glow,  dark  to  a  magenta  shade  in 
heavy  rain,  a  constant  menace  to  her  trailing  petti- 
coats, which  it  stains. 

The  internal  arrangement  of  her  house  will  be  simple, 
—  and  much  the  same  as  that  of  our  house  in  town. 
The  whole  front  probably  is  one  room,  —  the  parlor,  — 
and  back  of  it  are  other  rooms  in  a  row,  intercommuni- 
cating by  way  of  door  spaces  from  six  to  ten  feet  high, 
midway  of  which  hang  little  glass  screens  like  the  baize 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  159 

doors  of  American  saloons.  All  these  rooms  in  a  row 
open  upon  the  patio.  The  kitchen  is  somewhere  at 
the  back  of  the  house,  with  the  dining  room,  the  bath- 
room, the  servants'  quarters  and  the  storerooms,  all 
located  without  any  consideration  for  convenience. 

The  walls  throughout  are  white  plaster  (woodwork, 
blue)  and  so  very  high  the  bride  will  measure  the  im- 
mense distance  between  bright-tiled  floor  and  raftered 
ceiling  and  despair  of  ever  decorating  it  all,  as  she  did 
with  difficulty  succeed  in  doing  in  the  case  of  only  one 
small  room  on  a  roof.  As  time  passes,  however,  she 
will  find  that  these  bare  walls  no  longer  look  lonesome 
to  her,  —  they  seem  only  clean  and  fresh  and  cool  and 
restful ;  when  she  goes  North  on  vacation  low-ceiled 
rooms  oppress  her  and  the  patterns  of  wall  paper 
irritate.  She  comes  to  like  her  curtainless  windows 
through  which  she  sees  the  eternally  blue  sky,  with 
clouds  of  morning  pink  and  noonday  white  and  even- 
ing gold,  and  at  night  the  setting  of  southern  stars 
around  her  friend  the  moon,  now  round  and  bright, 
now  thin  and  pale,  a  very  ''little  feather.''  She 
comes  to  like  her  bedroom  with  its  pipe-legged  bed 
all  swathed  in  mosquito  netting,  and  its  long-mirrored 
wardrobes  (no  Cuban  house  has  clothes  closets)^  She 
comes  to  like  evSrhnrlittle  T^ftchen  with  its  shiny  tiles 
around  the  sink,  its  glazed  brick  fogon  (stove)  with 
charcoal  gratings  on  top,  and  little  puddles  of  ashes  it 
has  let  drift  upon  the  floor. 

By  that  time,  too,  the  neighbors  have  called,  and  she 
discovers  there  are  no  enemies  in  the  enemies'  country, 
—  Miss  Jones  is  lost  to  their  recollection,  and  there 
remains  only  Mrs.  John  Richard  Doe,  ''a  dear  little 
thing,"  who's  the  wife  of  ''such  a  nice  man,  you  know." 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  attempt  to  disclose  here  those 


160  CUBA 

mysteries  of  social  circles  within  circles  into  which  she 
is  gradually  initiated,  until,  perchance,  she  comes  to  be 
one  of  ^^the  Vedado  sef  (almost  entirely  American), 
and  to  play  bridge  and  five  hundred  as  devotedly  as  do 
the  rest  of  them,  unmindful  of  others  less  fortunate, 
who  may  not  enter  in,  but  sit  unreconciled  and  disconso- 
late upon  the  portal,  murmuring  :  ''Gamblers  !''  She 
forms,  too,  her  own  little  clique  somewhat  apart  from 
^Hhe  Vedado  set,''  which  is,  as  nearly  as  I  can  make  it 
out,  an  aggregation  of  particular  stars,  each  one  of 
whom  is  the  central  sun  of  a  little  solar  system  of 
her  own.  She  shares  now  all  those  trials  and  tribula- 
tions, echoes  of  which  used  to  amuse  her  in  other  days  : 
she  herself  bemoans  the  tragedy  of  the  servant  prob- 
lem (the  stupidity  of  Spanish  immigrants  and  the  un- 
reliability of  Jamaicans),  the  heat  of  the  summer,  the 
utter  dullness  that  falls  upon  ''society''  when  winter 
passes,  and  she  may,  too  (she  who  us^d  to  work  eight 
hard  hours  a  day,  regardless  of  the  thermometer), 
suffer  a  nervous  collapse  (for  which  she  blames  "this 
enervating  climate"),  and  demand  an  annual  vacation 
North  as  other  wives  do,  considering  it  both  fashionable 
and  necessary. 

Or,  again,  she  may  do  none  of  these  things  at  all,  but 
bend  her  every  energy  to  making  Dick  comfortable,  to 
helping  him  get  on  in  business,  to  entertaining  espe- 
cially those  friends  who  can  and  will  assist  him.  She 
will  then  find  a  close  "chum"  among  those  English  and 
Canadian  matrons  who  take  their  tea  in  quietude  at 
home  and  appear  only  when  a  musicale  or  some  such 
genuine  attraction  draws  them  out.  Then  she'll  find 
no  summer  vacation  necessary  except  on  account  of 
the  children,  and  the  only  complaint  she'll  make  against 
this  country  is  the  lack  of  good  schools. 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  161 

Touching  edges  with  ^Hhe  Vedado  set/'  there  is  in 
Havana  a  cosmopoUtan  social  coterie  such  as  one  finds, 
I  think,  in  every  capital  city,  the  world  over.  To  it 
belong,  by  virtue  of  their  appointments,  tlie  resident 
diplomats  of  the  United  States  and  Europe,  and  a  few 
other  persons,  regardless  of  nationality,  whose  culture 
makes  them  acceptable  and  whose  wealth  enables  them 
to  ^^keep  the  pace,''  which,  here,  as  far  as  I  am  able  to 
observe,  is  not  particularly  a  ^^ swift"  one.  These 
people  live  much  the  same  life  the  world  over.  Their 
customs  are  not  national,  but  international,  and  they 
converse  in  any  and  all  of  the  modern  languages,  as 
convenience  may  dictate.  It  is  not  unusual  to  hear  one 
address  the  other  in  French  and  elicit  a  reply  in  Span- 
ish, or,  having  put  a  question  in  English,  to  get  its 
answer  in  German.  In  this  circle,  here  in  Cuba,  there 
is,  as  far  as  I  know,  only  one  American  woman  (beside, 
of  course,  the  United  States  minister's  wife)  who  genu- 
inely ^'belongs"  ;  she  not  only  '^belongs,"  but  she  leads. 
A  few  others  of  her  compatriots  cling  to  the  edges,  and 
may,  in  time,  attain.  I  know  at  least  one  English- 
woman who  would  be  welcomed,  if  she  desired,  as  she 
seems  not  to,  to  enter  in.  There  are,  in  this  same  small 
company,  a  good  representation  of  Cubans,  the  wives, 
in  some  instances,  of  Germans.  There  are  German- 
born  ladies,  and  French.  It  is  customary  to  suppose 
that  there  are  more  permanent  and  exacting  social 
circles  than  even  this  one,  in  which  only  Cuban  ^^  old- 
est families"  move,  but  I  doubt  that  this  is  the  case. 

Americans  are  enrolled  as  members  in  about  all  the 
Spanish  regional  societies ;  they  desire  the  benefits 
membership  confers  in  case  of  sickness.  Some  few 
Americans  belong  to  the  amateur  musical  and  dramatic 
associations  here.     There  is  a  German  Club,  considered 


162  CUBA 

very  exclusive ;  it  gives  a  ball  on  the  emperor's  birth- 
day. There  is  a  Yacht  Club  with  a  single  yacht  which 
visits  its  clubhouse  at  Marianao  Beach  every  Sunday. 
There  is  an  American  Club  to  associate  membership  in 
which  other  nationalities  are  admitted ;  it  is  the  pivot 
around  which  the  formal  social  life  of  the  English- 
speaking  colony  swings.  The  Club  gives  balls  on 
American  national  holidays,  when  every  American,  his 
wife,  and  daughters,  their  English,  Canadian,  Spanish, 
and  Cuban  friends,  the  diplomatic  circle  and  local 
officials,  march  up  its  marble  stairway,  which  is  then 
trimmed  in  greens  and  tiny  red,  white  and  blue  lights, 
and,  after  a  turn  on  the  unyielding  marble  floors  above, 
march  down  again. 

The  Club  is  the  informal  rendezvous  of  all  English- 
speaking  residents  here.  It  has,  in  this  capacity,  a 
rival  in  the  unnamed,  unchartered  tertulia  (party, 
gathering),  to  which  they  all  belong,  that  holds  forth  on 
the  terrace  of  the  Miramar  at  the  foot  of  Prado,  regu- 
larly, each  day  at  the  hour  when  the  sun  goes  down 
beyond  Vedado,  hghting  all  the  intervening  sea  and 
sky  to  the  zenith  with  flaring  color.  At  the  poUshed 
tables  of  native  hardwood  along  the  seaward  side  of  the 
hotel  one  may  find,  between  five  and  six  on  any  after- 
noon, the  leading  foreign  residents  of  Havana;  they 
are  unfaiUng  habitues.  Here,  too,  their  wives  appear, 
from  shopping  or  the  afternoon  drive,  to  partake  of  an 
ice  or  tea.  Before  them  passes  as  on  parade  along  the 
Malecon  drive  the  endless  chain  of  conveyances  in 
which  all  the  city  is  ''taking  the  air''  at  the  sunset  hour. 
Steamers  leaving  or  entering  port  negotiate  the  narrow 
mouth  of  the  harbor  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  drive- 
way ;  or,  again,  it  is  a  white-sailed  schooner  beating  in 
under  Cabanas,  whose  moss-patched  walls  glow  pink 


FOREIGNERS    IN    CUBA  163 

in  the  waning  light.  As  the  southern  night  falls,  thick 
and  quickly,  whirling  carriages  and  automobiles  seen 
from  Miramar  become  animated  silhouettes  against  a 
burning  background.  When  the  flame  in  the  west 
burns  low,  and  out,  and  only  ^^  ashes  of  sunset  strew  the 
sky,''  their  lamps  are  lighted;  then,  in  the  darkness, 
each  seems  a  link  in  a  running  chain  of  intermittent 
glow.  Now  and  then  a  touring  car  drawing  up  at  the 
curb  turns  the  inquisitive  eye  of  its  searchlight  upon 
those  at  table.  They  sit  long.  Their  thoughts  travel 
far  to  sea  and  across  it,  north  and  south,  and  east  and 
west,  in  the  hour  they  share  together  on  the  terrace  at 
Miramar  —  they  will  remember  that  rare  period  in  their 
days  here  through  after  years  and  over  long  distance, 
when  they  scatter  whence  they  have  come,  —  back 
again  to  those  various  regions  they  refer  to  as  home. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A   FARCE 

Las  cosas  de  Cuba  no  tienen  igual} 

Foreigners  (resident  or  absentee)  own,  I  am  con- 
vinced, at  least  75  per  cent  of  Cuba,  —  fully  three 
fourths  of  the  very  soil  of  the  island.  I  have  heard 
their  real  estate  holdings  estimated,  by  an  ofl&ce  whose 
official  business  it  is  to  know  conditions  here,  at  90 
or  95  per  cent  of  the  whole.  Foreigners  (Americans 
and  Europeans  of  many  nationalities)  are  the  owners 
of  the  far-reaching  sugar  fields,^  of  the  tobacco  vegas 

1  From  a  popular  song  entitled  "Cuba,"  the  best  known  words  of 
which  are,  freely  translated,  as  follows  :  "Affairs  in  Cuba  are  without 
their  equal  anywhere.  Her  honorable  sons  are  dying,  and  while  they 
struggle  for  their  ideal,  —  the  American  laughs."  The  tune  to 
which  this  is  sung  is  one  of  the  syncopated  melodies  in  a  minor  key 
most  typical  of  the  country,  and  I  know  of  nothing  more  touching 
than  to  hear  these  pitifully  true  words,  chanted  after  nightfall,  in  the 
thin  high  key  he  affects,  by  some  solitary  countryman  jogging 
along  his  quiet  trail  in  and  out  among  the  ghost-like  palm  trees  of 
the  fertile  valleys  in  his  native  land,  especially  when  he  arrives  at 
the  wailing  chorus  :    "  Cuba,  thy  sons  weep  !" 

2  Statistics  carefully  compiled  go  to  show  that  foreigners  own 
two  thirds  of  this,  Cuba's  biggest  business ;  Europeans  (Span- 
iards in  the  majority)  own  one  third  and  Americans  the  other 
third,  exclusive  of  mortgages  American  interests  have  on  many  a 
mill  rated  as  Cuban.  In  perusal  of  this  chapter  the  reader  will  be 
led  to  the  correct  conclusion  that  times  are  hard  in  Cuba.  The  only 
quarters  in  which  they  are  not  hard  are  the  sugar  districts,  where  the 
mills  (two  thirds  of  them  foreign)  are  very  busy  piling  up  profits  for 
foreigners  who  invest  or  spend  it  outside  of  Cuba,  in  New  York  or 
Paris,  the  twin  heavens  of  the  sugar  planter.     The  great  sums  they 

164 


''CUBA    LIBBE     — A    FABCE 


165 


of  account,  of  the  bristling  ruby  pineapple  fields,  of 
the  scattered  green  citrus  fruit  orchards,^  and  of  great 
circles  and  irregular  rounded  segments  of  circles  granted 
originally  to  the  ancestors  of  the  Spaniards  among  them 
by  the  King  of  Spain.  Probably  legal  right  to  small 
areas  (between  circles)  not  covered  by  these  royal  grants 
vests  in  the  government  of  Cuba,  but  so  muddled  are 
titles  and  so  imperfect  the  surveys  existing,  that  govern- 
ment cannot  or  does  not  prove  its  title,  —  there  is  no 
land  for  homesteading,  — ^nd  the  Cuban  remains  a 
tenant  and  a  squatter  in  his  own  country^ 

i^or  political  and  administrative  purposes  the  island 
is  divided  into  barrios,  corresponding  roughly  to  our 
wards  and  counties,  which  are  grouped  into  provinces, 
analogous  on  the  surface  only  to  our  states.  Six  of  these 
are  comprised  within  the  so-called  Republic  of  Cuba. 

Foreigners,  and,  with  them,  those  Cubans  who  own 
real  property,  pay  an  annual  tax  on  it,  when  improved, 
to  the  municipalities,  which  also  levy  an  industrial  tax 
upon  business  of  all  sorts ;  this,  because  they  are  the 
storekeepers  of  the  island,  falls,  like  the  tax  upon 
property,  on  foreigners. 

expend  in  wages  go  to  foreign  help,  —  British,  French,  German 
skilled  employees  and  to  thousands  and  thousands  of  Spanish  peasant 
day  laborers,  who,  when  the  season  ends,  embark  by  the  shipload  for 
the  Peninsula,  where  they  spend  their  earnings  during  the  dead  sea- 
son with  their  families,  returning  at  the  commencement  of  the  new 
crop  to  repeat  the  performance.  Of  the  ''wealth  of  the  Indies"  the 
sugar  business  constitutes  Cubans  get  only  the  pittance  paid  to  them 
for  the  humblest,  hardest  work  entailed,  —  that  of  the  cane  cutter, 
who  swings  his  machete  or  guampera  from  dawn  till  dark,  felling  and 
stripping  stalks  in  the  sweltering  field. 

^  Spaniards  and  Americans  who  finance  them  own  the  pineapple 
fields ;  Spaniards  and  an  increasing  number  of  American  companies 
own  the  tobacco  vegas ;  Americans  and  Canadians  own  the  orange  and 
grape  fruit  groves.  Cubans  are  their  workmen  on  wages  which 
average  a  dollar,  American,  per  diem. 


166  CUBA 

Now  the  government  of  municipalities,  the  govern- 
ment of  the  provinces  into  which  they  are  grouped, 
and  the  central  or  national  government  over  them  all, 
are  administered  by  Cuban  citizens,  in  the  name  of 
those  other  Cubans  who  are  tenants  and  squatters  on 
the  soil  which  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole  fabric,  in 
consideration  of  salaries  they,  the  office  holders,  receive 
from  the  revenues  accruing  in  small  part  from  taxes  on 
real  estate  and  industries,  paid  in  by  foreigners,  as 
stated,  and  in  large  part  (85  per  cent)  from  import 
duties  on  merchandise  brought  into  the  country.  This 
85  per  cent,  too,  foreigners  pay,  for  they  are  doing  the 
general  business  in  the  course  of  which  that  merchan- 
dise is  needed. 

We  have,  then,  in  Cuba,  a  country  owned  by  for- 
eigners, the  government  of  which  .is  supported  by 
foreigners,  but  administered  by  Cubans,  after  such  a 
fashion,  however  (foreigners  have  not  the  suffrage), 
that  these  Cubans  in  office  are  not  answerable  to  the 
real  source  of  their  salaries  for  the  disbursement  of 
these  or  other  revenues,  paid  in  by  the  foreigners,. nor  in 
any  legitimate  manner  can  they  be  obligated  to  con- 
sider the  welfare  of  the  country  (owned  by  foreigners) 
or  of  the  business  conducted  (by  foreigners)  within  its 
boundaries.  As  at  present  constituted  this  is  the  most 
expensive  government  on  earth,  and  those  who  operate 
it  (the  Cuban  office-holding  class)  have  every  reason 
to  labor  to  make  it  even  more  so,  since  its  extravagancies 
run  to  salaries,  which  they  receive,  and  to  even  more 
outrageous  contracts  and  concessions,  on  which  they 
get  liberal  ^^ rake-offs.''  While  they  enjoy  these  profits 
on  their  independence,  the  bills  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  government,  which  is  the  sole  evidence  of  the  exist- 
ence of  that  independence,  fall   for  payment   not  to 


''CUBA    LIBBE''  —  A    FABCE  167 

them,  but  to  the  foreigner,  and,  through  him,  on  the 
^^ ultimate  consumer,'^  who,  again,  although  he  is  Cuban 
in  part  (foreign  proprietors,  industrials,  and  business 
men  in  general  are  regardless  of  nationality  when  they 
turn  from  the  customhouse  intent  on  wringing  reim- 
bursement for  what  they  have  paid  out  there  from  the 
most  necessitous  among  their  renters  and  customers  !), 
is  not  in  the  majority  the  Cuban  office-holding  class.^ 
He  is,  instead,  the  unhappy  ^^  Cuban  of  the  country, '^ 
—  the  petty  planter,  tobacco  grower,  charcoal  burner] 
pig-herder,  perhaps,  and  humble  wage  earner  in  hamleti 
and  small  town,  in  whose  name  that  fabric  of  govern- 
ment stands  which  is  crushing  the  life  out  of  him. 

This  situation  is  the  reason  why  only  professional 
politicians,  who  hold  the  ^^jobs'^  and  accumulate  the 
^^  rake-offs, ''  advocate  the  continued  maintenance  of 
this  so-called  Republic  of  Cuba,  as  against  the  property 
holders,  the  business  men  of  every  class  and  condition, 
and  the  miscellaneous  population  of  the  island,  des- 
tined, some  day,  to  become  its  ^^  people  ^'  who,  the  first 
two  directly  and  the  last  one  indirectly,  pay  the  exorbi- 
tant cost  of  this  republic's  upkeep,  protestingly,  be- 
cause they  do  not  receive  any  benefits  from  it  to  make 
the  excessive  expenditure  seem  worth  while. 

Americans,  when  they  rushed  to  the  aid  of  Free 
Cuba  in  1898,  supposed  that  they  were  intervening  in 
behalf  of  an  oppressed  people  struggling  for  justice. 
The  truth  is,  they  championed  a  horde  of  disgruntled 
political  aspirants  after  ^^jobs,''  who  cloaked  their  real 
aims  in  the  mantles  of  not  a  few  visionaries  working  with 
them,  inspired,  unquestionably,  by  genuine  patriotism, 
that  modern  sentiment  which  Cuba,  like  Heine,  might 
have  done  better  without,  inasmuch  as  in  these  warm 
latitudes  it  tends  to  become  maudlin  and  is  readily 


168  CUBA 


prostituted.  These  two  very  different  varieties  of 
'^patriots''  —  the  one  class  working  to  their  own 
personal  ends  and  the  other  to  accomplish  an  '^deaP' 
—  found  their  joint  efforts  against  Spain  seconded  in 
the  provinces  by  the  simple  countryman,  who,  for  his 
part,  cared  little  for  his  country  and  aspired  not  at  all 
to  a  place  at  her  ^^crib,''  but  desired  solely  peace  and  a 
good  market  for  his  crops.  Under  the  Spanish  regime 
he  got  neither,  and  therefore  he  was  perfectly  willing 
to  see  a  change.  So  the  '^wars  for  independence'' 
waged  on ;  the  office  seekers  conspired  in  the  town, 
the  visionaries  fought  in  the  field,  and  the  noncom- 
batant  guajiro,  from  Maysi  to  San  Anton,  lent  to  the 
cause  the  heavy  weight  of  his  inertia.  By  1898  the 
situation  taxed  human  endurance.  The  Spaniards 
held  only  the  principal  towns  (Maceo  had  died  within 
eighteen  miles  of  Havana  itself)  to  which  they  had 
access  by  sea  but  not  by  land.  The  Cuban  insurgents 
wandered  in  ragged  bands  over  the  interior,  avoiding 
as  far  as  possible  formal  combat  with  the.  regulars, 
green  and  unwilling  Spanish  boys  recruited  under  laws 
that  compelled  them  to  service,  who  entertained  no 
animosity  against  Cubans,  but  preferred,  like  their 
opponents,  to  escape  real  battle.  Each  party  in  turn, 
endeavoring  to  starve  the  other  out,  destroyed  what- 
ever of  value  was  encountered ;  since  the  fields  and  the 
buildings  they  burned  were  either  the  vast  properties 
of  foreign-born  proprietors,  or  the  wretched  all  of  the 
unresisting  guajiro,  neither  Spanish  troops  nor  Cuban 
insurgents  hesitated  to  apply  the  torch.  All  the  coun- 
tryside was  rendered  bare  and  black,  littered  with 
fallen  walls  and  ruined  machinery.  At  this  juncture 
the  battleship  Maine  blew  up  in  Havana  harbor,  and 
the  United  States  intervened. 


''CUBA    LIBRE'' — A    FARCE  169 

The  first  impetuous  belief  that  the  Spaniards  had 
brought  about  this  catastrophe  out  of  hate  of  the  Amer- 
icans, who  permitted  filibusters  to  aid  the  Cubans  in 
arms,  cooled  under  later  consideration  of  the  fact  that 
the  Cubans  alone  profited,  or  might  have  expected  to 
profit,  by  the  calamity.  Still  later,  when  an  accident 
which,  had  it  not  been  heroically  prevented,  would 
have  been  identical  in  effect,  was  so  narrowly  averted 
aboard  another  American  war  vessel  in  southern  waters, 
suspicion  was  lifted  somewhat  from  the  Cubans  them- 
selves, so  that  now  the  opinion  generally  prevailing  is 
that  the  Maine  was  not  willfully  wrecked  by  either 
Spaniards  or  Cubans,  but  was  blown  up  by  an  explosion 
within  her  own  hull.  The  American  government's 
apparent  unwillingness  to  remove  the  debris  from  Ha- 
vana harbor,  where  they  remain  an  unsightly  menace  to 
navigation,  has  lent  support  to  the  rumor  that  Washing- 
ton rather  dislikes  to  exhibit  the  evidence  those  bent  and 
twisted  armor  plates,  now  safely  buried  in  the  mud, 
may  show,  when  lifted  to  the  gaze  of  an  interested 
world  in  whose  ears  rings  yet  the  Spanish-American 
war  cry  of  ^^  Remember  the  Maine, ''  If  the  Maine  was 
sunk  by  an  explosion  in  her  own  magazines,  it  will  throw 
a  rather  unwelcome  light  on  Uncle  Sam,  who  will  be 
shown  to  have  taken  up  arms  on  the  impetus  of  a  mis- 
understanding, and,  as  Cuba  learns  to  her  cost  in  other 
directions,  that  eccentric  old  gentleman  fears  nothing 
in  the  world  excepting  that  world's  ridicule. 

The  destruction  of  the  Maine,  due  to  whatever  cause, 
was  a  very  happy  occurrence  for  the  Cuban  insurgents, 
for  it  occasioned  the  Spanish-American  war,  brought 
about  the  Occupation  and  the  Evacuation  of  the  Spanish 
forces,  into  whose  places,  at  the  convenience  of  Amer- 
ican officials,  the  soldiers  of  the  Liberating  Army  (its 


170  CUBA 

ranks  vastly  increased  the  moment  all  danger  of  fight- 
ing was  over)  were  permitted  to  march  to  the  triumphal 
tune  of  '^The  Invasion.''^ 

From  1898  to  1902,  the  United  States  administered 
Cuba  under  a  Military  Government  with  generals  of 
our  army  at  its  head.  The  last  and  best  known 
of  these  was  General  Leonard  Wood,  whose  name  is 
associated  with  improvements  effected  during  the  four 
years  mentioned,  —  with  sanitation  which  routed  yel- 
low fever  so  that  it  is  no  longer  epidemic ;  with  the 
establishment  of  schools ;  with  the  building  of  roads ; 
with  the  beautifying  of  parks  and  promenades,  and  the 
general  cleaning,  repairing,  and  furbishing  of  the  coun- 
try which  was  done. 

On  May  20,  1902,  the  American  Military  Govern- 
ment of  the  island  withdrew,  leaving  a  Cuban  presi- 
dent, Sr.  D.  Tomas  Estrada  Palma,  in  the  palace. 
The  American  flag  went  down  from  Morro  Castle,  and 
the  single  star  of  the  Cuban  banner  rose  in  place  of  its 
numerous  constellation.  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that  a  very  grievous  wrong  was  done  to  Cuba 
that  day.  As  one  who  fought  to  see  his  colors  on  that 
staff  said  to  me,  only  yesterday:  ^^You  claimed  to  be 
our  friend,  yet  you  handed  us  a  loaded  pistol,  knowing 
we  would  shoot  ourselves. '^ 

Americans  since  they  became  such  have  known  no  form 
of  government  save  that  of  a  republic,  as  constituted 
by  the  United  States.     We  consider  it  the  only  form  of 

1  In  1895-1896  Maceo  ordered  the  Cuban  revolutionary  army  to 
join  him  in  Pinar  del  Rio  Province,  theretofore  undisturbed  by  the 
revolution,  and,  from  all  the  provinces,  across  all  the  trotchas,  they 
came  swarming.  "The  Invasion"  is  a  military  march  written  to 
that  movement,  and  it  was  played  by  the  bands  which  escorted 
Generalisimo  Maximo  Gomez  and  his  men  into  Havana  City  when 
they  made  their  triumphal  entry  here. 


''CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  171 

government  suited  to  free-born  man,  and  so,  doubtless,  it 
is.  We  were  friendly  to  Cuba,  and  therefore  we  handed 
out  to  her  the  best  form  of  government  we  knew,  since, 
apparently,  she  had  to  have  one  ready-made.  We  for- 
got to  consider  that  she  was  unskilled  in  manipulating 
it.  A  few  of  us  knew  at  the  time  that  she  must  destroy 
herself  with  the  dangerous  gift ;  the  rest  of  us  were  so 
overcome  with  hysteria  at  consideration  of  our  own  gen- 
erosity to  our  young  ward  that  we  refused  to  be  in- 
formed. 

Americans  in  the  persons  of  their  ancestors  were 
trained  toward  republican  form  of  government  from 
the  very  day  of  the  Magna  Charta  to  the  famous  date  in 
1775  when  they  declared  their  attainment  of  independ- 
ence, the  expression  of  which  is  the  government  they 
then  constituted.  The  form  of  that  government  was 
assumed  to  fit  conditions  as  they  existed.  The  republic 
was  an  emanation  from  a  people  already  trained  to 
exercise  the  suffrage,  and  with  it  the  self-control  that 
liberty  entails.  The  United  States  was  not  created  out 
of  chaos  in  a  moment  of  stress  by  a  group  of  divinely 
inspired  statesmen.  It  was  but  the  next  step  forward 
in  a  logical  course  of  development  extending,  already, 
through  generations  and  centuries  of  time  and  experi- 
ence. 

Cubans  have  had  none  of  that  training,  none  of  that 
experience ;  they  did  not  evolve  their  own  republic  as 
the  fit  expression  of  their  needs.  They  and  their  ances- 
tors before  them  were  colonial  subjects  of  a  Catholic 
monarchy,  and  their  republic  as  they  got  it  was  fash- 
ioned for  them  in  four  short  years  by  strangers  to 
them  and  their  necessities;  it  was  thrust  upon  them 
inopportunely,  as  a  man's  worn  coat  might  be  wrapped 
by  a  hurried  nursemaid  about  a  small  boy  she  proposed 


172  CUBA 

to  desert.  Cuba  was  forthwith  abandoned  to  her 
own  devices.  The  result  was  disaster.  We  were,  in 
brief,  not  successful  in  fitting  conditions  to  a  form  of 
government  entirely  unsuitable  to  them. 

Hardly  had  the  battleship  bearing  General  Wood  hence 
dropped  over  the  horizon  on  which  Morro  Castle  faces 
than  the  ''outs''  began  to  insist  on  ''jobs''  with  most 
unseemly  greed  ;  the  "ins"  held  on  to  theirs  with  might 
and  main,  and  a  vigorous  tussle  followed.  In  the  course 
of  it,  all  patriotism,  as  the  visionary  who  had  fought  for 
his  "ideal"  —  Cuba  Libre  —  understood  that  word, 
was  forgotten  in  sordid  contest.  The  welfare  of  the 
guajiro,  planting  sweet  potatoes,  yuca,  and  malanga 
out  in  the  country,  was  not  once  considered,  although 
he  himself  was  the  last  man  to  note  the  fact,  inasmuch  as, 
in  the  full  tide  of  new  hope,  the  country  was  prosperous, 
and  he,  demanding  only  peace  and  a  market,  was  getting, 
then,  all  that  he  desired. 

Estrada  Palma  was  a  good  man ;  few  of  his  opponents 
deny  that.  He  was,  however,  a  weak  man ;  that  they 
live  to  revile  him  is  one  strong  bit  of  evidence  of  this,  his 
gravest  fault.  Another  is  the  quality  of  official  friends 
he  chose.  Mr.  Palma  was  selected  president  without 
regard  for  factional  differences.  There  was  not  then 
and  is  not  yet  any  party  organization  in  Cuba  along 
lines  of  difference  in  policy  expressed  in  platform. 
There  are  only  absolute  divisions  into  cliques  without 
issue  save  on  the  personality  of  leaders,  who,  one  and  all, 
hold  their  followers  on  the  strength  of  "jobs, "  actual  or 
potential.  As  the  date  (1905-1906)  for  presidential  elec- 
tions approached  for  the  second  time,  Mr.  Palma  thought 
it  necessary  to  ally  himself  with  one  of  these  factions, 
known  as  the  Moderate  party.  Among  its  leaders, 
who  forthwith  gathered  about  him,  were  not  a  few  pro- 


'''CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  173 

fessional  politicians  as  unscrupulous  as  those  of  the 
opposition.  As  the  campaign  advanced  they  brought 
unlawful  pressure  to  bear  to  win  it.  To  assure  Palma's 
reelection  (it  meant  their  own  continuance  in  office) 
they  resorted  to  insufferable  interference  in  municipal 
and  provincial  elections,  abuse  to  which  these  organi- 
zations are  open  because  they  are  not  self-supporting 
(their  income  from  taxes  is  insufficient),  but  must  ac- 
cept contributions  from  the  central  government,  and 
endure,  apparently  in  recognition  of  them,  its  exacting 
authority  over  even  trivial  details  of  their  administra- 
tion, in  a  manner  surprising  to  Americans  accustomed 
to  see  the  autonomy  of  states  and  counties  respected. 
Palma's  partisans  padded  the  election  rolls,  stuffed 
the  ballot  boxes,  and  intimidated  by  display  of  govern- 
ment forces  at  the  polls  those  voters  who  would  have 
gone  against  them.  These  things  those  guilty  of  them 
(notably  Freyre  de  Andrade,  secretary  of  state  and 
government)  confessed  to  Mr.  Taft  at  the  time  he,  as 
head  of  the  American  Peace  Commission,  was  sent 
here  by  Washington  to  investigate  into  the  true  state 
of  affairs.  The  Liberals,  w^hose  own  hands  were  by  no 
means  clean,  cried  aloud  to  Heaven  to  witness  that  it 
was  impossible  for  them  to  express  theirs,  the  will  of  the 
majority,  by  ballot. 

They  then  resorted  to  the  only  recourse  Cubans 
know,  —  armed  rebellion.  The  ^  ^  Little  War  of  August ' ' 
(1906)  was  long  gathering.  Conspiracies  existed  in  Ha- 
vana for  months  beforehand  ;  the  leaders,  their  meeting 
places,  and  the  general  outline  of  their  plans  were  known, 
yet  the  government  took  no  action  against  gentlemen 
it  might  readily  have  caught  in  flagranti  in  treason. 
'^Pino"  Guerra  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  Pinar: 
it  consisted,  by  the  way,  of  a  Cuban  flag  draped  in  crepe. 


174  CUBA 

Times  were  hard,  as  they  are  apt  to  become  when  trouble 
is  anticipated  for  a  long  period  ahead  of  its  actual  ar- 
rival ;  many  men  were  idle,  and  therefore  ready  for  any 
diversion.  Many  others  who  were  or  might  have  been 
employed,  harking  back  to  the  not  unpleasant  freedom 
of  former  campaigns,  joined  in  with  alacrity.  Other 
leaders  appeared  in  other  provinces,  and  by  the  end  of 
August  there  were  armed  bands  out  in  every  province. 

I  shall  not  forget  that  ''war''  !  No  burlesque  on  any 
stage  was  equal  to  it  in  comedy,  as  seen,  at  least,  from  the 
city  editor's  desk  of  the  Telegraph,  then  the  best  daily 
paper  published  in  English  here.  It  was  difficult  to 
believe  that  what  little  blood  was  shed  was  of  more 
vital  consistency  than  red  ink. 

I  recall  with  what  anxiety  we  dispatched  a  ''war 
correspondent"  into  the  west  to  inquire  of  "Pino'' 
Guerra  what  this  revolution  was  all  about.  The  cor- 
respondent, who  developed  under  responsibility  from 
a  mediocre  reporter  into  a  very  capable  man  "at  the 
front"  (he  has  since  been  made  a  Cuban  consul  in 
Europe),  returned  to  us  a  handful  of  penciled  sheets; 
across  each  page  was  signed  the  potent  name  "Faustino 
Guerra, "  with  a  flourish.  I  have  since  sent  these  papers 
as  historical  curiosities  to  the  Library  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  This  authorized  interview  was 
in  effect  a  rebel  proclamation ;  it  was  the  leader's  first 
public  statement  of  the  revolution's  demands,  and  al- 
though I  forget  their  details  now,  I  know  that  each  and 
every  one  of  them  concerned  office,  —  to  wit,  "jobs," 
and  the  disposition  thereof.  The  uprising  had  no  other 
object  than  to  oust  those  who  occupied  certain  desir- 
able posts,  in  order  to  seat  other  men.  With  what  keen 
enjoyment  I  typewrote  that  pronunciamento  and  myself 
pasted  it  to  the  Telegraph  bulletin  board  facing  upon 


"CUBA    LIBRE'' — A    FARCE  175 

O'Reilly  Street !  Here  a  crowd  congregated  to  read  it, 
in  perfect  silence.  Shortly  another  representative  sent 
in  a  similar  communication  from  General  Asbert,  then 
in  arms  in  Havana  Province,  and  when  we  pasted  this, 
too,  alongside  the  interview  with  General  Guerra,  the 
secretary  of  war  at  the  palace  was  moved  politely  to 
protest !  We  agreed  not  to  paste  up  any  more  sue 
proclamations ;  we  didn't  expect  to  have  any  more  to 
paste ;  but  we  did  continue  to  publish  all  the  news  we 
could  get  from  the  front,  together  with  a  running  fire  of 
editorial  comment.  It  was  our  policy  to  whoop  the 
row  along  until  American  intervention  occurred,  which 
we  advocated  at  the  earliest  plausible  opportunity. 
The  government,  not  daring  to  suppress  us,  comforted 
itself  with  appointing  an  official  translator  of  our  edi- 
torials, the  inference  being  that  the  moment  he  found  in 
them  an  excuse  for  it,  the  editor  would  be  deported  as  a 
^^  pernicious  foreigner. ''  There  was  hardly  a  line  in  the 
editorial  column  in  those  days  which  might  not  have 
been  considered  good  ground  for  violent  action,  yet 
the  writer  of  it  walked  to  and  from  his  office  at  all  sorts 
of  hours,  unaccompanied,  unarmed,  —  and  untouched, 
despite  threats  carefully  conveyed  to  him  by  one  or  two 
of  the  individuals  he  criticised  cleverly.  Next  door  to 
us  La  Lucha  was  doing  its  best  to  roll  events  along  in 
the  direction  we  preferred.  Our  correspondents  were 
careening  overbad  roads  in  farPinarin  a  volanta  together 
with  a  big  white  sign  like  a  flag  of  truce  flapping  over 
them,  on  which  the  names  of  the  two  publications  were 
lettered  in  black.  I  remember  receiving  one  batch  of 
correspondence  from  our  man  with  a  note  attached 
which  read  :  ^^  Please  to  give  this  letter  also  to  the  Lucha. 
His  correspondent  has  got  catched  by  the  revolution." 
Needless  to  say  we  passed  the  '^  stuff   along.     Be- 


176  CUBA 

cause  of  our  attitude  toward  their  movement,  our 
men  received  every  consideration  from  the  rebels.  In 
Havana  we  got  Httle  satisfactory  news  from  the  palace, 
after  things  got  to  a  point  where  they  could  no  longer 
with  straight  faces  assure  us  that  ^^  perfect  tranquillity 
prevailed/'  We  surmised  on  many  occasions  that 
we  got  no  news  because  they  had  none  to  give,  the  rebels 
having  cut  the  wires,  but  received  theirs  rather  from 
us,  who  were  frequently  in  closer  conamunication  with 
the  front  than  they  were. 

Those  were  great  days.  Well-known  correspondents 
of  American  papers  began  to  arrive,  among  the  keenest 
of  them  the  late  ' '  Nick ' '  Biddle  of  the  New  York  Herald, 
who,  with  ^^ Billy''  Inglis  of  Harper^ s,  made  our 
office  headquarters.  I  remember  the  first  evening 
after  they  landed,  — how  ''Nick"  Biddle  returned  late, 
and,  seating  himself  at  my  desk,  asked  me  if  I  wanted 
to  take  down  a  good  ''story."  " G-g-g-graf t, "  he  be- 
gan, "says  Freyre  de  Andrade,  is  'Pino'  Guerra's  sole 
motive  in  heading  the  present  uprising  against  the 
Palma  government."  He  then  went  on  in  his  own 
peculiar  stammering  fashion  to  dictate  to  me  what 
seemed  to  me  then  and  still  seems,  long  after,  the  most 
perfect  newspaper  "story"  I  have  ever  read.  He  had 
seen  the  secretary  of  state  and  government  and  from 
him  obtained  a  declaration  that  "Pino"  Guerra  had 
offered  to  quash  a  previous  start  at  revolution  "for  a 
consideration."  The  man  was  again  in  debt  and  hard 
up,  and  Freyre  inferred  that  the  revolution  then  in  prog- 
ress was  but  another  attempt  on  "Pino's"  part  to  hold 
up  the  government.  When  he  had  finished  the  article 
Mr.  Biddle  arose,  and  fixing  me  in  my  chair  with  a 
kindly  eye  he  said  :  "  You  write  the  caption,  and  p-p-put 
it  all  in  the  headlines.  Miss  Wright.     P-p-put  it  all  in  the 


T     PhJiogfaph  ^ylAmtiiuin  Pf:  qfo  Crmpfiny 
PlERO    Gu^RlA     '         *    >  ,  '       '    ^  7' 

Revolutionary  Leader  of  the  "  Little  War"  of  August,  1906,  which  overthrew  the  Palma 
administration  and  occasioned  American  intervention 


"CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  177 

headlines.  Every  good  story  is  told  once  in  the  head- 
lines, once  in  the  first  p-p-paragraph,  and  then  you  tell 
it  all  over  again,  you  s-s-see/'  I  saw,  and  no  novice 
ever  had  better  schooling  in  real  newspaper  work  than  I 
under  '^Nick''  Biddle,  during  the  next  few  weeks.  I 
learned  immensely  to  admire  that  man,  against  whom, 
prior  to  his  coming,  I  had  heard  much  that  was  unfavor- 
able, most  of  it  untrue.  He  was  his  own  worst  enemy, 
and  he  had  no  fault  save  that  which  had  almost  mas- 
tered him  on  another  memorable  night  when  he  dictated 
to  me  the  famous  tale  of  the  armored  train.  In  the  telling 
he  hesitated  and  was  silent  between  paragraphs ;  he 
struggled,  and  then,  helplessly,  would  say  to  me : 
^^P-p-put  me  on  the  track,  Miss  Wright,  p-p-put  me  on 
the  track. '^  I  would  reread  the  last  paragraph  he  had 
dictated,  and  with  that  as  assistance  his  mind  pushed 
on,  against  the  fog  over  it,  erecting  word  by  word  and 
sentence  by  sentence  the  masterly  structure  of  a  news- 
story,  —  for  there  is  a  skill  in  the  hot  and  hurried  work, 
done  while  the  linotype  waits,  and  ''Nick''  Biddle  was 
a  genius  at  it. 

I  wish  that  I  could  retell  here  as  he  told  it  the  classic 
history  of  ''The  Gunshy  Armored  Train, ''  as  Slevin,  the 
editor,  in  comment  not  often  equaled  for  wit,  named  it, 
suggesting  a  camel  stomach  attachment  for  armored 
engines  to  avoid  thereafter  difficulties  such  as  befell 
this  one.  It  set  out,  bravely  enough,  with  the  "Foreign 
Legion''  of  highly  paid  scrub  volunteers  aboard  in  com- 
mand of  a  remarkable  collection  of  American  officers, 
all  in  a  Western  Railway  train  protected  against  attack, 
and  carrying  a  small  field  gun.  Near  the  Ovas  bridge  it 
ran,  so  its  officers  explained,  into  an  ambush.  We  learned 
later  from  our  correspondent  that  what  it  encountered 
was  "Pino"  Guerra  and  his  staff,  riding  ahead  of  their 


178  CUBA 

column,  who,  being  as  surprised  as  they  could  be  to  see 
a  train  not  on  schedule,  took  a  few  shots  at  it  from 
behind  some  side-tracked  freight  cars,  preparatory  to 
removing  themselves  from  range  immediately.  To  their 
astonishment,  however,  the  fireman  jumped  off  the  en- 
gine and  ran  for  cover,  the  engineer  reversed  the 
throttle,  and  the  whole  train  retreated  down  the  tracks 
at  top  speed,  scattering  wild  shots  from  roof,  sides,  and 
bottom  regardless  of  damage  done  to  Western  Railway 
property.  Thereafter  the  company  sent  troops  out  in 
box  not  passenger  cars.  Backward  the  train  took  its 
headlong  flight,  till  it  drew  up,  many  kilometers  from 
the  scene  of  the  encounter,  beside  a  water  tank  where 
it  refreshed  itself  somewhat.  It  was  then  offered  in 
explanation  that  the  engine  had  to  have  water,  so, 
discovering  its  necessity  on  sight  of  ^^Pino^'  Guerra, 
went  back  after  it,  none  of  the  water  beyond  Ovas  or 
in  numerous  tanks  passed  on  the  retreat  having  tempted 
its  particular  taste.  Meanwhile,  all  Havana  hung  in 
suspense  to  know  the  havoc  this  armored  train  and  its 
''Foreign  Legion''  might  work  on  Guerra  and  his  men. 
When  the  truth  became  known,  hilarity  passed  all 
bounds.  In  vain  the  officers  sought  to  stem  the  tide 
of  laughter,  nor  did  my  own  contribution  to  the 
merriment  subside  when  one  assured  me  that  what 
they  had  retreated  for  was  ammunition.  ''And  where 
was  the  ammunition?''  I  inquired,  desiring  to  poke 
no  unmerited  fun  at  any  warrior.  "It  was,"  he  said, 
in  confidential  tone,  "in  the  baggage  car,  ahead, ^^ 

Looking  back,  now,  without  any  file  of  the  paper  to 
guide  me,  I  cannot  recall  the  sequence  of  events.  I  remem- 
ber the  day  we  heard  that  Orestes  Ferrara  had  blown 
up  three  great  sugar  mills,  the  property  of  foreigners, 
in  Santa  Clara  province :  one  Spanish,  one  English, 


''CUBA    LIBRE''  — A    FABCE  179 

and  one  American.  We  learned  that  the  Discusion  had 
received  a  dispatch  to  this  effect,  signed,  as  usual,  '^Cor- 
respondent/^ Our  city  man,  hastening  to  the  depart- 
ment of  state,  had  seen  the  owner  of  the  Spanish  mill 
rushing  from  that^  office,  white  with  rage  at  his  loss. 
The  department  had  received  a  similar  dispatch,  sent 
by  the  government  telegrapher  at  the  station  nearest 
to  the  disaster.  Not  till  much  later  did  we  learn  that  the 
mills  had  not  been  touched  !  Ferrara  had  merely  taken 
possession  of  the  telegraph  station,  sent  the  dispatch 
signed  ^'Correspondent'' himself,  forced  the  telegrapher 
to  send  the  other,  and  then  destroyed  the  station  to 
prevent  any  denial  going  forth.  He  accomplished  as 
much  by  the  ruse  as  he  could  have  done  by  blowing  a 
few  million  dollars  worth  of  property  into  useless  junk. 
From  that  day  the  foreign  legations  began  to  take  close 
notice  of  the  situation,  and  their  home  governments 
communicated,  doubtless,  with  Washington.  It  is 
known  that  the  Court  of  St.  James  was  not  inactive 
while  Cuban  Central  Railway  engines  were  sent  head- 
on  full  speed  to  collide  with  each  other  on  bridges,  and 
Western  Railway  culverts  soared  skyward  at  the  dis- 
charge of  dynamite.  Both  of  these  companies  are 
British,  and  they  were  attacked  precisely  to  compel  action 
in  London.  They  have  since  collected  damages.  The 
insurgents  desired  to  occasion  American  interference, 
and  the  end,  in  it,  of  the  Palma  regime  they  were  not  able 
to  oust  by  other  means.  The  cruiser  Denver  came,  with 
decks  cleared  for  action ;  she  poked  her  stern  into  the 
front  door  of  the  port  captain's  office.  Her  guns  then 
commanded  O'Reilly  and  Obispo  streets.  I  remember 
the  night  ''Nick"  Biddle  came  pounding  up  our  circular 
stairs,  thrust  his  head  through  the  door,  shouting: 
"Come  on,  Slevin,  all  hell's  due  to  break  loose  in  fifteen 


180  CUBA 

minutes,  and  Vve  got  to  be  there  to  see/'  That  was  the 
night  the  rebel  General  Loynaz  was  expected  to  invade 
Havana  with  fire  and  oil,  the  police  mutinying  to  meet 
him ;  it  was  the  night  Palma  declared  his  inability  to 
protect  foreign  life  and  property;  and  the  night  the 
Denver  landed  her  bluejackets.  It  was  also  the  night 
that  nothing  happened  at  all.  My  mother  and  I  walked 
home,  unaccompanied,  all  the  long  length  of  O'Reilly 
in  the  dawn,  unmolested,  as  usual ;  on  the  corners  we 
saw  policemen  carrying  rifles  instead  of  clubs,  the  sole 
indication  that  we  were  under  martial  law. 

I  recall  the  night  that  President  Roosevelt's  letter 
to  the  Cuban  people,  announcing  the  appointment  of 
the  Peace  Commission,  arrived  page  by  page  over  the 
cable.  From  the  ^'flimsy"  I  typewrote  it  for  appear- 
ance down  the  center  of  our  front  page  next  morning. 
We  blazoned  it  forth,  for  its  appearance  marked  the 
triumph  of  our  desire :  American  intervention,  though 
not  formally  declared  for  some  time  thereafter,  had,  in 
point  of  fact,  begun.  I  think  that  when  President  Roose- 
velt wrote  that  missive  he  wrote  from  his  heart,  for 
sent  by  cable  and  in  multitudinous  copies  to  all  the  news- 
papers of  the  Associated  Press  and  nobody  knows  how 
many  independent  services  besides,  it  still  retained  a 
vibrant  personal  note,  —  an  echo  of  the  living  voice  of 
the  man  who  thinks  himself  their  friend,  addressing  in  a 
crisis  a  people  who  begin  to  doubt  it. 

Soon  the  Peace  Commission  landed,  Mr.  Taft,  then 
American  secretary  of  war,  at  its  head,  and  thereafter 
for  many  days  long  conferences  were  held  in  the  Amer- 
ican minister's  palace  in  Marianao.  Representatives 
of  the  Palma  administration  told  their  troubles  into 
Mr.  Taft's  left  ear.  Representatives  of  the  rebels  in 
arms,  camped  just  beyond  La  Lisa  bridge,  told  their 


"CUBA    LIBRE''  — A    FARCE  181 

troubles  into  his  right  ear.  Later  Mr.  Taft  submitted 
a  Report  which  was  printed  and  pubhcly  distributed, 
in  which  he  retold  what  they  told,  in  a  manner  so  simple, 
frank,  and  faithful  that  the  astute  gentlemen  who  had 
done  the  talking  were  paralyzed  with  astonishment  at  his 
na'ivite.  That  report  is  the  clearest  statement  possible 
of  Cuban  character  and  conduct  before  and  during 
that  troublous  period,  and  who  would  know  the  facts 
need  but  read  it.  It  is  monumental  evidence  that 
Mr.  Taft  understands  Cubans  and  the  Cuban  situation. 
It  does  not  explain  why,  so  knowing,  his  policy  should 
have  been  what  it  was. 

I  remember  how  news  arrived  that  General  Mario 
Menocal  was  coming  up  from  Chaparra,  at  the 
last  moment,  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the 
administration  and  rebels,  in  the  name  of  the  Veterans 
of  the  Wars  for  Independence,  among  whom  he  is  in- 
fluential. I  think  we  never  learned  just  what  oc- 
curred, for  the  general  was  reticent,  but  it  was  under- 
stood that  he  received  scant  courtesy  at  the  palace; 
he  went  home,  and  the  incident  alienated  many  of  the 
administration's  friends,  for  General  Menocal  is  trusted 
as  well  as  admired  and  it  had  been  hoped  that  he  would 
succeed  in  arranging  a  compromise  by  way  of  which 
American  intervention  might  still  have  been  avoided. 
President  Palma,  however,  insisted  upon  resigning. 

Official  dispatches  exchanged  at  the  time  between 
Havana  and  Washington  indicate  that  Palma  had  ex- 
pected the  American  representatives  to  uphold  him 
and  his  government,  as,  assuredly,  he  had  every  reason 
to  do,  since  it  was  the  established  government  they 
themselves  had  set  up  and  he  was  the  president  elected, 
legally  or  illegally,  to  be  the  head  of  it.  During  his 
administration,  it  is  true,  abuses  had  been  committed, 


182^  CUBA 

but  they  were  all  remediable ;  certainly  the  men  in 
arms  against  him  were  in  no  position  to  criticise  him 
even  for  the  worst  that  had  been  done,  in  his  name. 
Yet  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  Bacon  trafficked  with  forces  in 
open  rebellion  against  their  own  country.  It  is  a  hard 
thing  for  Americans  to  accept,  but  the  only  explanation 
is  that  the  Peace  Commission  was  actually  afraid  of 
the  horde  of  ragamuffins  assembled  at  Havana^s  gates. 
Yet  these  unorganized  hordes  would  have  vanished  at 
the  Commission's  mere  mandate,  or,  had  they  not, 
one  charge  of  American  cavalry  would  have  dispersed 
them.  It  was  precisely  the  effect  of  having,  perhaps, 
to  charge  them  which  Mr.  Taft  as  the  head  of  that 
Commission  feared,  for  the  time  was  close  on  the  elec- 
tion in  which  he  was  to  appear  as  candidate  for  the 
American  presidency,  and,  undoubtedly,  necessary  and 
wise  as  it  might  have  been  under  the  circumstances,  had 
he  had  to  use  force  to  disband  the  Constitutional  Army 
(as  the  rebels  were  called)  it  would  not  have  made  pleas- 
ant reading  in  the  opposition  newspapers  of  the  North. 
Therefore  Mr.  Taft  temporized,  —  and  in  so  doing  he 
gave  tone  to  all  the  Provisional  Administration  which 
followed.  He  suggested  compromise  to  Mr.  Palma, 
this  compromise  to  consist  in  the  resignation  of  certain 
officials  elected  at  the  time  that  he  was  reelected  for  his 
second  term  :  in  short,  Mr.  Taft  suggested  that  a  few  fat 
'^fruits''  from  the  official  '^plum  tree''  be  handed  to 
the  leaders  of  the  opposition  then  encamped  beyond 
La  Lisa.  Mr.  Palma  retorted  that  if  the  gentlemen 
Mr.  Taft  proposed  to  sacrifice  were  not  entitled  to  their 
posts,  then  neither  was  he,  elected  under  identical  condi- 
tions. Mr.  Palma  maintained  that  the  proposition 
stripped  him  of  dignity  as  a  man  inasmuch  as  it  implied 
that    he    held    office    to  which   he  was  not  entitled; 


"CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  '    183 

moreover,  as  president  sworn  to  defend  his  country 
and  its  constitution,  he  could  have  no  parleyings  with 
men  guilty  of  treason  against  that  country.  He  left 
the  palace  stigmatized  as  a  coward,  but,  as  time  passes, 
history,  on  whom  he  called  to  judge  him,  inclines  to 
declare  that,  under  the  circumstances  into  which  his 
weakness  had  led  him,  he  did  all  that  remained  to  him 
as  right. 

The  vice-president  also  having  resigned,  Mr.  Taft 
called  upon  the  congress  to  choose  a  successor  accept- 
able to  both  contending  parties.  No  quorum  could  be 
secured.  I  remember  that  night,  especially,  how  we 
in  the  newspaper  office  sat  waiting,  as  hour  after  hour 
the  reports  came  in ;  the  last  one  was  to  the  effect  that 
friends  were  leading  General  Boza  from  the  chamber, 
protesting,  with  tears  pouring  down  his  face,  that  they 
postpone  adjournment  just  a  little  longer  in  hopes  that 
enough  of  his  fellow  members  could  be  rallied  to  their 
duty  to  save  the  country  from  formal  foreign  interven- 
tion. Before  morning  Taft  declared  himself  provisional 
governor. 

The  Provisional  Administration  of  the  Republic  of 
Cuba  was  organized.  Note  in  the  title  how  careful  its 
guardians  were  to  preserve  the  name  of  the  fabric  from 
which  they  had  just  crushed  what  little  of  substance 
it  had  had  ! 

'  Judge  Charles  E.  Magoon,  who  had  made  an  enviable 
record  but  lately  in  Panama,  was  soon  appointed  pro- 
visional governor  to  succeed  Mr.  Taft.  Although  I 
have,  naturally,  no  means  of  knowing,  I  believe  that 
Magoon' s  sole  instructions  were  to  keep  things  quiet 
that  there  might  be  no  ''Cuban  Question''  to  trouble 
the  campaign  in  which  Mr.  Taft  was  elected  President 
of  the  United  States.     If  these  were  his  instructions. 


184  CUBA 

assuredly  Magoon  carried  them  out  to  the  letter, 
for  during  the  critical  electoral  period  Cuba  was  little 
more  than  mentioned.  To  secure  that  quietude,  how- 
ever, to  disturb  which  might  possibly  have  jeopardized 
Republican  success,  Magoon  paid  dear  in  American 
reputation  in  this  country. 

Mr.  Taft  had  set  him  the  example;  all  potential 
trouble  makers  were  to  be  bought  off,  as  the  Constitu- 
tional Army  was,  with  the  sacrifice  of  the  Palma  ad- 
ministration to  its  leaders,  and  the  free  gift  of  horses 
they  had  stolen  to  the  rank  and  file  of  its  men. 

I  refer  to  what  has  become  notorious  as  ^Hhe  docked- 
tailed  horse  deal.''  The  rebels  in  arms  against  the 
government  helped  themselves  as  they  traveled  over  the 
country  to  horses,  which  they  bestrode.  When  details 
of  disbanding  came  up  for  consideration  before  the 
Peace  Commission,  how  to  return  these  horses  to  their 
rightful  owners  was  a  vexing  question.  It  was  decided 
to  provide  each  man  with  a  card  accrediting  him  (as 
nearly  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  country  as 
might  be)  as  provisional  owner  of  the  animal  in  his 
possession  until  such  time  as  the  rightful  owner  might 
be  found.  Many  riders  docked  the  tails  of  their  horses 
and  otherwise  attempted  to  disguise  them  so  that  the 
rightful  owners  might  never  identify  their  own.  ^^Un- 
fortunately,'' to  quote  Mr.  Taft's  own  version  of  what 
occurred.  General  Frederick  Funston  '^allowed  the  cer- 
tificates to  read  in  Spanish  as  if  vesting  title"  to  their 
mounts  in  the  insurgents.  The  mistake  was  a  trans- 
lator's slip  for  which  Mr.  Taft  assumed  the  blame.  He 
had  not,  however,  the  courage  to  remedy  the  matter,  but, 
estimating  that  it  would  cost  the  Cuban  government 
only  $500,000,  he  let  the  matter  stand  and  arranged 
that  the  rightful  owners  when  found  should  be  paid 


''CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  185 

for  the  horses  they  had  lost.  Naturally,  they  did  not 
get  full  value.  The  bitterness  engendered  throughout 
the  country  was  an  even  higher  price  paid  in  addition 
to  the  cash  the  mistake  cost  Cuba.  The  feeling  of  a 
hard-working  petty  planter  who  had  saved  for  years  to 
buy  a  horse  may  be  imagined  when  he  saw  some  loa^giig 
neighbor  come  riding  that  beast  home,  made  safe  by 
Mr.  Taft's  certificate  that  he  owned  it,  while  he,  the 
man  who  had  worked  and  paid  for  that  one  possession 
dear  to  a  Cuban's  heart,  received,  after  some  months' 
delay,  a  sum  in  recompense  considerably  less  than  he 
would  have  accepted  for  the  beast  at  sale  ! 

In  accordance  with  such  example  as  this  Mr.  Magoon 
governed  the  country  for  the  period  that  the  Provisional 
Administration  was  permitted  to  endure.  He  dealt 
through  the  official  ^^ Commission  on  Jobs,''  whose 
duties  were  to  distribute  honors  and  office  among  con- 
tending factions  in  such  manner  as  to  keep  them  all 
satisfied,  or,  at  least,  hopeful.  He  provided  reasons 
for  continued  excursions  abroad  for  those  leaders  it 
was  not  wise  to  have  at  home.  He  tolerated  and  even 
made  much  over  a  good  many  persons  that  no  American 
can  doubt  that  as  good  an  American  as  the  Nebraskan 
was  must  have  longed  earnestly  to  boot  down  the  steps 
of  the  palace  they  frequented.  Meanwhile,  Mr. 
Magoon  considered  the  millions  in  the  coffers  of  the 
treasury,  —  the  surplus  Estrada  Palma  had  jealously 
guarded,  —  and,  determined  that  it  should  not,  as  Mr. 
Palma  had  half  feared,  ^^fall  into  mercenary  hands, " 
he  proceeded  to  spend  it  all,  and  more,  on  public  im- 
provements, especially  roads.  The  distribution  among 
workingmen  of  this  treasury  surplus  made  the  control 
of  Cuban  affairs  far  less  interesting  to  most  political 
aspirants  than  it  had  seemed,  yet,  when  the  hour  for 


186  CUBA 

presidential  and  other  elections  arrived,  there  were 
three  factions  with  candidates  in  the  field,  —  the 
Conservatives  (successors  of  the  Moderates,  though 
they  deny  it),  the  Miguelistas  (followers  of  General 
Jose  Miguel  Gomez),  and  the  Zayistas  (those  of  Lie. 
Aif^^edo  Zayas),  which  are  the  two  wings  of  the  Liberal 
partj^  disrupted  in  a  quarrel  over  ^^jobs^^  in  1905. 
As  the  names  indicate,  there  was  no  organization  into 
parties  on  the  line  of  principles,  but  still  the  old 
absolute  divisions  according  to  the  personality  of  the 
leader  preferred. 

The  Conservatives,  whose  candidate  was  General 
Mario  Menocal,  proved  so  unexpectedly  strong  that 
the  Miguelistas  and  the  Zayistas  found  it  necessary 
to  combine  into  one  Liberal  party  again  to  save  the 
day,  so  they  divided  up  the  slate,  and  General  Gomez 
headed  the  ticket,  with  Zayas  as  candidate  for  the  vice- 
presidency,  and  only  Juan  Gualberto,  who  declined 
to  support  Zayas  in  the  move,  saw  anything  to  be  ad- 
versely commented  upon  in  this  sudden  reconciliation 
of  two  bitter  opponents.  It  is  understood  that  to 
effect  the  combination  Gomez  promised  not  to  accept 
a  second  term.  Next  election  it  will  be  Zayas^  turn  as 
occupant  of  the  presidential  palace. 

Gomez  was  elected.  He  was  duly  installed ;  Ma- 
goon  and  the  army  officers  who  were  the  officials  of  the 
Provisional  Administration  sailed  away  on  the  battle- 
ships (one  was  the  new  Maine,  which  entered  Havana 
Harbor  eleven  years  to  the  hour  after  her  ill-fated  pre- 
decessor) and  the  transport  sent  to  convey  them. 
Once  more  Cuba  was  left  with  a  hair-trigger  republican 
form  of  government,  cocked,  in  her  shaking  hand. 

This  administration,  inaugurated  on  February  28, 
1908,  has  already  lasted  longer  than  it  was  anticipated, 


"-CUBA    LIBBE'' — A    FARCE  187 

at  its  commencement,  that  it  could.  Its  record  is  the 
same  old  story  of  greed  and  ^^graff  in  high  places  and 
in  low,  too  monotonous  and  sordid  to  be  pleasant  or 
necessary  to  detail.  The  biggest  '^deaP'  yet  attempted 
is  at  the  present  moment  pending :  it  concerns  the 
concession  by  the  government  of  exceedingly  valuable 
lands  along  the  water  front  to  a  railway  corporation  in 
exchange  for  certain  centrally  located  but  much  less 
valuable  lands  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  The  loss  to 
the  country,  if  the  transaction  as  first  planned  occurs, 
will  be  very  great ;  the  gain  to  the  railway  company  will 
be  as  great,  and  the  profit  to  certain  of  the  legislators 
who  champion  the  ^  transaction,  in  proportion.  The 
newspapers  are  by  the  ears  pro  and  con,  and  one  con- 
gressman in  favor  of  the  exchange  only  the  other  day 
attempted  to  shoot  another  on  the  floor  of  the  house 
because  of  his  opposition  to  the  bill  in  the  matter. 
This  same  Congress  has  just  raised  the  salary  of  its  own 
members  a  hundred  dollars  a  month,  —  meanwhile 
public  improvements  are  at  a  standstill  for  lack  of 
funds,  and  schools  are  being  abolished  on  the  ground 
that  there  is  no  money  to  pay  for  their  support.  The 
lottery  is  in  full  blast,  and  there  is  cockfighting  every 
Sunday  in  pits  newly  built  all  over  the  island ;  agree- 
ments to  establish  these  two  forms  of  national  diver- 
sion were  important  planks  in  the  Liberal  party's  plat- 
form. General  business,  especially  around  Havana 
and  through  the  center  and  west  of  the  island,  is  at  a 
standstill ;  only  in  the  far  east,  where  cane  flourishes  in 
sun  and  rain,  and  in  the  far  west,  where  tobacco  grows 
luxuriant  in  the  marvelous  soil  of  Vuelta  Abajo,  is 
there  some  semblance  of  prosperity,  —  and  this  because 
the  regions  and  their  industries  are  far  removed  from 
the  seat  of  government  and  the  center  of  the  machina- 


188  CUBA 

tions  of  professional  politicians,  than  whom  there  is 
here  no  other  kind. 

As  early  even  as  the  ending  of  President  Palma^s  first 
administration  the  visionaries  who  constituted  the 
second  active  element  among  those  who  labored  for 
Cuba  Libre,  and  at  first  took  some  part  in  public  affairs, 
began  to  discover  that  their  '4deal,''  attained,  was 
turning  to  ashes  in  their  hands.  Before  the  Provisional 
Administration  was  through  with  the  country,  they  were 
ready  to  cast  aside  the  few  cinders  which  remained 
within  their  grasp.  I  know  one  such  man  personally. 
He  fought  through  the  ''bush'^  four  years  for  Free 
Cuba.  The  day  that  the  Cuban  flag  went  up  on  Morro 
Castle  was  the  happiest,  so  he  says,  he  ever  saw. 
'^It  was,''  he  has  told  me,  ^Hhe  realization  of  the  dream 
that  warmed  me  through  many  a  rainy  night  on  the 
open  road  and  cooled  me  through  many  a  hot  and 
sweltering  day  in  the  sultry  jungle.''  Under  Palma 
this  gentleman,  having  learned  the  work  of  that  de- 
partment under  the  Military  Government  precisely  as 
a  man  learns  a  business  of  his  own,  rose  to  be  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  and  he  it  was  who  held  the  key  to  the 
coffers  where  the  millions  in  surplus  were  stored  away. 
Mr.  Taft,  in  the  Report  I  have  mentioned,  names 
Secretary  Fonts  and  President  Palma  as  the  two  honest 
men  he  encountered  in  the  course  of  his  investigation 
here  as  Peace  Commissioner !  With  Palma,  Fonts 
Sterling  went  out  of  office.  The  change  meant  little 
enough  to  him  personally,  because  his  attainments  were 
sufficient  to  obtain  for  him  immediately  a  good  post 
with  our  leading  bank,  but  the  humiliation  entailed 
at  the  time  on  his  country  meant  much,  and  now,  I, 
who  used  to  hear  him  say  time  and  again,  when  he 
was  assistant  auditor  under  Lieutenant  Brooks,  and, 


"CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  189 

later,  under  Major  Terrill  (1900-1902)  :  '^How  kind 
and  good  the  Americans  are  !  They  are  training  my 
country ;  and  we  are  learning  V  have  now  to  hear  him 
inquire  of  me,  whenever  we  meet :  ^^  Well,  what  do  you 
think  of  this  ?  See  what  they  have  done  to  us  !  If 
ever  another  American  intervention  such  as  this  second 
one  is  threatened  here  I  will  go  out  and  fight ;  they  shall 
come  in  only  over  me,  dead  !  They  have  ruined  us,  but, 
prostrate  as  we  are,  we^U  stand  no  more  such  treat- 
ment!'' 

This  man^s  attitude  is  that,  I  think,  of  most  of  those 
who  fought  against  Spain  solely  for  their  country's 
cause.  They  consider  that  they  have  been  betrayed, 
and  they  are  desperate.  They  see  no  way  to  turn. 
They  hold  aloof  from  affairs  as  they  stand  to-day,  here, 
for  they  are  powerless  to  reform  them.  They  recall 
the  Provisional  Administration  with  rage  and  hate 
they  make  no  attempt  to  disguise,  for  it  was  that  ad- 
ministration which  handed  Cuba  over,  a  sacrifice  to  the 
Republican  party  in  the  North,  into  the  power  of  her 
own  worst  elements.  They  consider  that  the  caliber 
of  men  elevated  to  office  is  an  affront  to  the  culture  and 
intelligence  of  the  island.  They  will  have  nothing  to 
do,  personally,  socially,  or  politically,  with  the  persons 
now  in  the  heyday  of  power.  Only  once  have  they 
attended  in  number  any  public  social  function  since 
Palma  was  president,  and  that  was  the  reception  ten- 
dered by  the  City  of  Havana  to  General  Leonard 
Wood  and  Mrs.  Wood  upon  the  occasion  of  their  recent 
visit  here.  There  were  no  less  than  seven  members  of 
cabinets  under  Palma,  with  their  wives  and  daughters, 
present  that  day.  With  them  came  all  the  '' quality '' 
of  the  capital.  It  was  a  resurrection.  If  General 
Wood  was  asked  once  that  afternoon  how  soon  Cuba 


190  CUBA 

might  expect  him  back,  in  his  former  capacity,  he  was 
asked  full  fifty  times.  The  query  followed  him  through 
all  the  fetes  and  functions  with  which  he  was  kept  busy 
from  the  moment  he  landed  until  his  warship  cleared. 
To  this  question  he  replied,  once  that  I  know  of,  that 
''We  must  hope  for  the  best/'  To  which  the  little 
Cuban  lady  who  had  asked,  cried  eagerly :  '^  Ah,  then, 
—  it  is  soon  !'' 

The  welcome  Cuba  extended  to  General  Wood  had,  as 
it  was  fully  intended  to  have,  just  one  significance. 
Through  Havana  the  country  said:  '^ Return!  We 
are  in  dire  need  !  You  have  betrayed  us,  yet,  being 
helpless,  weVe  no  recourse  but  to  trust  you  again. 
Give  us,  since  nothing  we  have  had  since  has  proven 
as  good,  the  strong-handed  military  administration  we 
had  before. ''  Even  men  of  the  type  of  Fonts  Sterling, 
though  possibly  he,  personally,  is  too  deeply  hurt  ever 
to  forgive,  say,  looking  into  the  future  :  ''Never  again 
such  an  administration  as  the  provisional  government ! 
But  a  heavy-fisted  determined  regime  like  General 
Wood's,  much  as  we  may  have  criticised  it  when  he 
handed  it  out  to  us,  is  the  only  thing  to  save  us  now.'' 

Not  even  that,  it  seems  to  me,  can  prove  more  than  a 
temporary  palliative  unless  the  deep  and  underlying 
evils  of  which  the  whole  state  of  affairs  in  Cuba  is  but 
symptoms,  are  remedied :  and  to  remedy  them,  if  it 
can  be  done  at  all,  will  take  more  than  a  generation  of 
time.  The  reform,  like  charity,  which,  to  Cuba 
it  would  prove  to  be,  must  begin  at  home,  —  in  Wash- 
ington. The  United  States  has  acquired  dependencies. 
Cuba  is  one  of  them ;  no  legal  fiction  can  alter  the  fact 
that  she  is.  It  is  a  little  late  in  the  day  to  discuss  whether 
or  not  we  want  dependencies :  the  fact  stands  that  we 
have  them  on  our  hands.     Here  they  are,  and  we  can't 


''CUBA    LIBBE'' — A    FARCE  191 

get  rid  of  them.  Having  them,  we  must  administer 
them,  and  to  do  it  properly  we  need  a  colonial  depart- 
ment. During  the  late  provisional  administration  of 
Cuba  the  world  witnessed  the  peculiar  spectacle  of  an 
official  under  the  state  department  (the  American 
minister  to  Cuba,  for  we  kept  up  the  farce  of  diplomatic 
representation  here  during  that  period)  presenting  his 
credentials  to  an  official  under  the  war  department  (the 
provisional  governor,  who  received  them  in  Cuba's 
name).  The  detail  is  interesting  merely  for  its  ulterior 
significance  :  we  have  not  the  proper  means  by  which  to 
administer  these  dependencies  we  can't  get  rid  of. 
We  bungle  the  business  :  they  suffer.  Succeeding  ad- 
ministrations at  Washington  are  loth  to  provide  the 
means  necessary,  because,  forsooth,  they  fear  an  ^^anti- 
imperialistic''  hue  and  cry  from  the  country  at  large. 
Under  the  pressure  of  necessity,  however,  a  semblance  of 
a  colonial  department  is  coming  together,  surreptitiously, 
as  it  were,  around  the  nucleus  of  our  Bureau  of  Insular 
Affairs.  Such  a  department,  once  it  exists,  ought  to  be 
removed  from  politics,  —  a  feat  much  easier  to  suggest 
than  to  accomplish.  Until,  however,  we  do  accom- 
plish it,  the  peoples  whose  fate  we  must  continue  to 
handle  will  still  be  batted  hither  and  yon  like  tennis 
balls  over  a  court  in  the  course  of  the  ^^game"  of  politi- 
cal controversy  which  is  the  very  life  of  our  Great  Re- 
public. The  one  single  reason  why  General  Wood 
succeeded  in  administering  Cuba  where  Governor 
Magoon  failed  was  because  General  Wood  was  a  military 
man  and  his  a  military  government,  —  that  is,  he  had  no 
need  to  consider  politics  in  any  aspect.  He  had  nothing 
to  do  but  what  was  right,  and,  with  soldierly  brusqueness, 
he  did  it,  as  far  as  he  was  able.  Governor  Magoon,  on 
the  other  hand,  himself  a  political  possibility  to  higher 


192  CUBA 

place,  conducted  a  civil  administration  for  the  presi- 
dential nominee  of  a  political  party.  It  was  his  task  to 
do  not  so  much  what  was  right  as  what  was  expedient, 
—  and  he  did  it. 

Once  we  have  a  proper  colonial  department,  with  men 
not  biased  by  political  considerations  at  the  head  of  it, 
the  future  of  our  possessions  will  brighten  like  the  east 
at  sunrise,  for  such  men  will  have  inclination,  ability, 
and  opportunity  to  consider  what  those  dependencies 
need,  and  time  to  carry  out  the  projects  so  intelligently 
formulated.  They  will  discover  for  instance  that  the 
'^ crisis'^  which  seems  to  exist,  eternal  and  omnipresent, 
in  Cuba  is  not,  despite  appearances,  political  at  all, 
but  economic.  Having  discovered  this  (they  will  not 
be  the  first  to  know  it),  they  will  have  tenure  in  their 
office  assured  them  long  enough  to  permit  them  to  rem- 
edy basic  evils.  This  is  the  opportunity  which  has  not 
presented  itself  to  any  American  administration  of  Cuba 
yet;  Governor-General  Wood  thought  it  was  his,  as, 
doubtless,  had  McKinley  lived,  it  would  have  been; 
but  McKinley  died,  and  the  impetuous  Roosevelt 
snatched  it  from  him  by  the  order  terminating  the 
Military  Government  in  1902,  —  many  a  good  long 
year  short  of  its  season  ! 

At  Roosevelt^s  command  (not  by  the  will  of  a  non- 
existent Cuban  people)  the  Cuban  republic  arose  in  a 
night,  on  soil  owned  by  others  than  its  electors,  swarm- 
ing with  a  bureaucracy  these  foreigners  and  producing 
Cubans  have  had  to  support  ever  since.  There  it  stands, 
tottering,  and  pregnant  with  militant  trouble  as  was  the 
Trojan  horse  of  old  ;  when  finally  it  collapses  to  its  inev- 
itable destruction  let  Americans  on  hearing  the  crash 
recall  distinctly,  that  this  republic  is  not  a  creature  of 
Cubans, — it  was  neither  fashioned  by  them  nor  by  them 


"CUBA    LIBRE''  —  A    FARCE  193 

upheld,  —  but  on  the  contrary,  it  is  of  all- American 
manufacture.  Americans  built  it.  Americans  set  it  up 
again  when  once  it  fell  flat.  American  influence  is  all 
that  sustains  it  to  this  moment.  If  they  discover  any- 
thing to  criticise  in  it,  or  its  failure,  let  Americans  re- 
member in  so  criticising  that  they  are  dealing  with  the 
work  of  their  own  hands. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WANTED :     A  MARKET ! 

Cuba,  tus  hijos  lloran !  ^ 

Investigating  into  basic  —  that  is,  economic  — : 
conditions  underlying  all  the  surface  —  that  is  to  say, 
the  political  —  evils  to  which  Cuba  is  protesting  heir,  — 
such  a  colonial  department  as  the  United  States  ought 
to  have  (must  have,  some  day)  will  take  note  that 
despite  frequent  boasts  to  the  contrary  this  is  a  country 
crushed  under  heavy  taxation:  it  is  largely  indirect 
taxation,  and  therefore  easily  disguised ;  it  falls  heaviest 
where  its  burden  is  least  readily  borne.  Consider,  for 
instance,  the  fundamental  matter  of  the  land  owned  in 
large  tracts  by  wealthy  individuals  or  in  community  by 
families.  For  centuries  titles  and  surveys  were  in  such 
condition  no  legal  transfer  could  be  made ;  all  sorts  of 
subterfuges  were  resorted  to  instead  of  outright  sale. 
It  was  easier  and  simpler  to  rent  small  parcels  rather 
than  part  with  them  to  petty  buyers.  On  undeveloped 
tracts  there  has  never  been  any  taxation :  to  this  day 
owners  can  well  afford  to  let  square  miles  of  countryside 
lie  idle,  refusing  to  cultivate  it  themselves  or  to  allow 
others  to  do  so;  there  is  no  penalty  in  the  form  of  a 
land  tax  on  this,  their  ^^dog-in-the-manger'^  attitude. 
But  the  moment  they,  or  tenants,  begin  to  develop  land, 
it  acquires  a  rental  value,  and  on  this  there  is  taxation 
(4  per  cent  in  the  case  of  rural  and  8  per  cent  in  the 

**  ^  Cuba,  thy  sons  weep."     See  note  1,  p.  164. 
194 


WANTED:    A    MARKET!  195 

case  of  urban  property,  per  annum,  30  per  cent  of  which 
the  municipahty  which  levies  it  turns  over  to  the  prov- 
ince within  which  the  real  estate  is  situated).  In 
effect  the  government  penalizes  the  owner,  and,  through 
him,  the  renter,  for  the  serious  misdemeanor  of  industry. 
Why  should  such  a  landed  proprietor  trouble  himself 
(such  is  the  red  tape  involved  it  is,  indeed,  a  trouble) 
when  he  can  well  afford  to  wait  until,  as  they  say  here, 
^Hhings  remedy  themselves'^?  What  encouragement 
has  the  small  farmer  to  exert  himself  beyond  the  day's 
necessity?  He  cannot,  unless  he  is  very  fortunate, 
possess  himself  of  any  land  of  his  own.  Even  if  the 
proprietor  would,  he  cannot^  very  frequently,  to  this 
day,  give  title  to  any  particular  parcel  within  his  estate. 
If  he  troubles  himself  even  to  rent  to  the  small  grower 
of  any  crop,  he  must  charge  enough  above  the  real 
value  of  the  soil's  use  to  reimburse  himself  for  the  fine 
(it  amounts  to  that)  the  government  then  levies  upon 
him  for  permitting  his  land  to  be  made  valuable  by 
cultivation.  The  neatest  solution  all  'round  is  for  the 
man  who  desires  to  grow  anything  to  go  squat  in  a 
locality  he  likes ;  when  the  owner  discovers  him  at  work 
there  (he  may  be  long  finding  it  out),  he  will  set  a  price 
on  his  continuance,  and  this  the  countryman  will  pay, 
if  he  can ;  he  will  move  on  if  he  can't.  These  are  reasons 
why  the  guajiro  of  Cuba  lives  like  a  hog  in  a  hovel : 
why  should  he  build  a  house  suitable  for  human  habita- 
tion on  ground  he  may  have  to  vacate  to-morrow? 
Why  should  he  plant  more  of  any  crop  than  he  is  quite 
sure  he  can  consume  or  dispose  of  immediately,  when  he 
does  not  know  that  he  will  be  permitted  to  stay  with 
it  to  see  it  reach  maturity,  and  value?  Why  should 
he,  indeed,  when  in  addition  to  this  uncertainty  ex- 
perience has  also  taught  him  that  soldiers,  of  this  army 


196  CUBA 

or  that  army,  may  arrive  any  day  at  any  hour  to  take 
what  they  can  remove  and  burn  the  rest  for  him  !  No 
wonder  he  owns  only  sl  hammock  and  a  horse  to  carry 
that  away  on.  When  the  Advisory  Commission,  dur- 
ing the  Provisional  Administration,  was  busy  arrang- 
ing a  few  laws  for  the  country's  adoption,  the  American 
members  of  this  board  desired  to  revise  the  land  laws 
in  such  manner  as  to  place  a  tax  on  unimproved  land,  — 
to  shift,  in  short,  the  burden  of  taxation  to  rest  where  it 
belongs.  The  only  time  the  Conservative  and  the 
Liberal,  Cuban  members  of  that  Commission  united  ' 
in  agreement  during  its  long  sittings,  was  to  oppose  the 
proposition  !  They  gave  as  the  reason  that  its  enact- 
ment would  cause  trouble,  —  even  to  the  extent  of  a 
revolution  !  The  American  members  could  not  com- 
prehend why  Cubans  should  rise  in  arms  were  a  tax  laid 
on  the  real  estate  holdings  of  men  who  are,  in  vast 
majority,  foreigners.  The  truth  is  that  at  the  time, 
out  of  respect  to  their  preponderance  in  economic 
affairs  here,  the  question  had  already  arisen  of  granting 
foreigners  a  voice  in  affairs  political.  This  injection  of  a 
rational  element  into  politics  was  regarded  with  jealous 
resentment  by  Cuban  politicians  of  every  stripe,  and, 
Conservatives  and  Liberals  alike,  they  feared  that  were 
foreigners  more  heavily  taxed  directly,  they  would 
successfully  demand  some  representation  in  return  for  it. 
Therefore,  to  insure  the  continuance  of  ^^ jobs''  in  the 
hands  of  Cuban  politicians  solely,  they  voted  in  sweet 
accord  against  revision  of  land  laws  and  allied  taxation, 
—  voted,  that  is,  to  tighten  the  girth  that  saddles  his 
burden  on  their  compatriot,  the  Cuban  countryman. 
Let  him  continue  to  support  the  bureaucracy,  —  God 
help  him,  he's  well  used  to  it ! 

Only  those  travelers  who  see  Cuba,  —  who  ride  for 


WANTED:    A    MABKET !  197 

hours  over  mile  after  mile  of  her  rich,  undeveloped  terri- 
tory ;  who  see  her  common  people  (living  wretchedly 
from  hand  to  mouth,  ambitionless,  because  they  have 
inherited  a  realization  of  the  uselessness  of  striving), 
can  comprehend  what  detriment  the  present  situation 
with  regard  to  land,  lack  of  surveys,  uncleared  titles, 
community  holdings,  and  improperly  adjusted  taxation, 
is  to  the  island. 

From  property  holders,  then,  the  government  gets 
small  part  of  the  revenues  which  support  it.  It  gets 
another  small  part  from  industrial  taxes,  paid  in 
largely  by  foreigners,  who  are  doing  the  business. 
Every  shop,  factory,  office,  here,  pays  for  the  privilege 
of  bidding  for  trade ;  wagons  and  carriages,  automo- 
biles and  carts ;  peddlers,  funerals,  and  public  amuse- 
ments, —  every  form  of  activity  and  energy,  in  short, 
is  taxed.  The  contributions  required  from  these,  how- 
ever, are  not  particularly  onerous.  Neither,  added  to 
taxes  from  real  estate,  does  the  sum  total  of  them  raise 
that  amount  to  the  money  requisite  to  support  even  the 
municipalities  and  provinces,  to  say  nothing  at  all  of  the 
central,  national  government,  nor  is  the  necessary  fig- 
ure reached  even  when  there  is  thrown  in  that  govern- 
ment's very  questionable  income,  now  accruing,  from  the 
national  lottery.  This  lottery  was  only  recently  author- 
ized by  the  present  administration.  By  appeal  to  the 
Latin's  second  greatest  weakness  (his  propensity  to 
gamble)  it  gathers  in  his  scarce  '^quarters''  from  the 
very  poorest  and  most  ignorant.  It  takes  the  rent 
money,  the  money  due  the  groceryman,  the  money  needed 
to  buy  the  family  clothing  ;  in  witness  of  these  facts  the 
local  newspapers  are  at  present  citing  an  increase  in 
evictions  throughout  the  country  for  nonpayment  of 
rent,  and  a  marked  falling  off  in  school  attendance,  due, 


198  CUBA 

the  record  reads,  to  the  pupils'  having  not  even  the 
few  garments  thought  sufficient  here  to  clothe  them ! 

It  is,  instead,  not  to  real  estate,  industry  direct,  or  the 
rifled  pockets  of  the  gambler  it  encourages,  but  to  the 
customhouse  that  the  Cuban  government  looks  for  its 
real  support.  The  system  there  in  vogue  is  extortion  for 
revenue  only.  Eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  administra- 
tion's total  income  is  obtained  there  by  way  of  duties  on 
goods  imported.  According  to  the  latest  official  report 
of  the  Cuban  treasurer  that  I  find  available  (that  for  the 
fiscal  year)  the  total  of  collections  during  those  twelve 
months  was  S  24,794,966.07.  This  means  that  (dividing 
that  amount  by  2,048,980,  Cuba's  population  at  the 
time  (according  to  the  Census  of  1907-1908)  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  country  contributed  $12.10 
toward  this  government's  support  in  that  period  under 
the  one  single  heading  of  customs  receipts.  This  is  the 
world's  record,  for,  comparing  it  with  those  of  ^'high 
protection"  countries  elsewhere,  it  shows  up  as  follows  : 
Austria,  $.51 ;  Germany,  $1.22  ;  Italy,  $1.72;  France, 
$2.22;   United  States,  $3.55,  and  Cuba,  $12.10! 

Be  it  further  noted  in  this  connection  that  whereas 
these  other  countries  maintain  the  tariff  fence  at  their 
ports  to  protect  (in  theory,  at  the  very  least)  home 
industries  of  their  own,  Cuba  maintains  hers  frankly  for 
the  sole  and  single  purpose  of  getting  the  cash  to  keep 
her  government,  for  she  has  no  industries  to  protect. 

Fifty-one  and  eight  tenths  per  cent  of  Cuba's  im- 
portations are  articles  to  eat  and  to  wear,  —  things  she 
cannot,  in  some  cases,  by  any  possibility,  produce  at 
home,  such  for  instance,  as  cereals  and  cloth;  and 
other  things  which  she  does  not,  despite  the  protection, 
grow  or  make  in  appreciable  quantity.  Her  heavy 
tariff  is  a  tax,  then,  not  on  luxuries,  but  on  necessities. 


WANTED:    A    MARKET!  199 

It  is  instructive  next  to  observe  who  in  the  final 
analysis  settles  this  big  bill.  It  is,  of  course,  the  whole- 
sale importer  who  pays  the  actual  duties  in  the  custom 
house ;  he,  however,  is  reimbursed  by  the  retailer,  — 
by  the  grocer  and  by  the  haberdasher,  the  restaura- 
teur and  the  dry  goods  dealer,  who  handle  in  detail  the 
merchandise.  These,  again,  ^^get  theirs,  ^^  and  they  get 
it  from  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  Cuba  who  eats 
and  goes  clothed.  They,  for  their  part,  have  no  one 
on  whom  to  be  revenged ;  their  sole  solace  lies  in  bitter 
complaint  against  the  exorbitant  cost  of  mere  existence 
in  Cuba.  There  is  no  city  on  the  map  where  the  simple 
necessary  things  all  must  have,  cost  as  they  do  here. 
Rents  and  every  allied  expense  are  in  proportion.  It  is 
true  that  salaries  and  incomes  seem  to  be  in  keeping,  but, 
when  the  tally  is  taken,  finally,  receipts  have  all  leaked 
out  on  the  expenditure  side,  and  nobody  ^^gets  ahead.'' 
When  one  considers  the  situation  seriously,  tracing  the 
trouble  to  its  source,  it  is  enough  to  make  all  of  us  who 
reside  here  determined  to  get  a  government  ^^job,'' 
and  so  put  back  into  pocket  some  part  of  what  we  pay 
that  there  may  be  '^ jobs''  to  get,  or,  otherwise,  ^Hake 
to  the  woods"  to  live  on  mangoes,  a  fruit  that  is  usually 
free  for  the  picking,  and  wear  whatever  garments  we 
can  ^4oot"  from  the  guajiro  who  lives  there.  Some- 
times he  has  a  second  shirt. 

This  is  the  man  whose  situation  is  desperate.  He 
has  endured  long  past  the  point  where  patience  ceased 
to  be  a  virtue,  becoming,  instead,  despicable  weakness. 
Under  Spanish  rule  he  was  ground  between  the  mill- 
stones ;  Americans  stepped  in,  not  to  release  him,  but 
to  change  these  stones  for  others  more  relentless  be- 
cause more  vigorously  greedy,  —  those  of  his  own 
political  factions.     Had   the   Cuban  guajiro  been  in 


200  CUBA 

truth,  as  he  is  supposed  to  be,  a  freeborn  citizen  ripe  for 
a  repubhc,  he  would  have  salUed  forth  and  fought  all 
hands  concerned  in  his  wretchedness  :  Spaniards,  home- 
grown politicians,  and,  finally,  Americans,  alike,  not 
to  obtain  or  maintain  this  republic,  but  to  abolish  it, 
and,  along  with  it,  all  the  cost  it  is  to  him.  Because  he 
is  not  a  citizen,  trained  by  inheritance  and  experience, 
he  assumes  the  attitude  of  a  humble  subject,  which  his 
forefathers  were  and  he  continues  to  be,  accepting,  so 
far,  whatever  is  put  upon  him  in  the  name  of  that 
extraneous  Power  he  recognizes  as  being  above  and 
apart  from  him,  —  the  Divine  Right  to  Govern.  He 
has  not,  as  yet,  the  slightest  perception  of  the  fact  that 
it  vests  in  him,  and  that  his  is  the  right  and  the  duty 
to  call  to  account  those  who  exercise  it.  It  has  not 
dawned  upon  him  that  they  have  usurped  it  from  him. 
This  humility  of  his  does  not,  however,  prevent  the 
Cuban  guajiro  from  entertaining  a  growing  suspicion 
that  Authority  is  not  infallible,  or  omnipotent,  as  he  has 
heretofore  supposed  it  to  be.  Despite  his  simplicity, 
his  lack  of  education,  and  scanty  information,  he  is  no 
fool,  —  this  Cuban  countryman,  —  and  he  is  learning, 
thanks  to  a  hard  school.  He  has  from  the  commence- 
ment dimly  understood  that  his  interests  are  not  those 
of  either  the  professional  politician  or  the  visionary, 
the  one  demanding  a  republic  and  the  other  ^^jobs'^ 
under  it.  He  felt,  under  Spain's  oppression,  that  their 
ways  and  his  did  lie  together  for  a  little  length.  As ' 
they  traveled  forward,  he  saw  the  visionary  reach  his 
goal,  —  the  Republic  of  Cuba,  —  and  find  it  a  farce ; 
he  watches  the  office  seeker  revel  now  in  '^ jobs''  for 
which  he  provides  the  salaries.  He  begins  to  feel 
that,  next,  it  is  his  turn  to  make  demands,  and  what 
he  asks  is  :    a  market. 


WANTED:    A    MARKET!  201 

For  he  observes  that  there  is  no  money  for  him  in 
tobacco ;  they  tell  him  it  is  because  duties  are  high  on 
it  entering  the  United  States,  and  there's  no  sale  any- 
where else.  He  finds  there  is  no  money  in  pineapples, 
partly  for  the  same  reason.  There  is  still  a  living  in 
cane,  in  those  years  when  American  market  conditions 
permit  a  profit  to  the  mill  owner  he  sells  to.  There 
is  always  something  to  be  made  in  growing  plantains 
and  the  native  root  crops  the  local  market  will  accept. 
Nobody,  however,  seems  to  have  any  money;  the 
crossroads  groceryman  remains  overcautious  in  matter 
of  credit  because  there  is  constant  talk  of  further 
revolution,  and,  what's  new  now,  of  race  war. 

Meanwhile.  .  .  .  '^What  do  you  do,  then,  for  a 
living?''  I  inquired  of  one  keen-faced  fellow,  who  was 
showing  me  over  his  little  home  place  recently;  he 
was  a  squatter,  but  they  had  been  unmolested  for 
fifteen  years,  and  the  oleanders  and  jasmines  in  their 
dooryard  were  trees  in  size.  I  had  assured  him  I  was 
not  a  prospective  purchaser,  so  he  no  longer  feared  that 
if  I  saw  its  beauties  I  would  buy,  and  turn  him  from 
the  place.  '^What  do  you  do,  then,  for  a  living,  now 
that  high  duties  make  tobacco  unprofitable?"  '^We 
dedicate  ourselves,"  he  said  solemnly  (I  am  translat- 
ing literally),  ''to  earning  the  dollar  off  the  American." 
There  was  a  considerable  American  colony  all  about 
him. 

The  dollars  of  the  American  !  I  am  convinced  that 
if  the  Cuban  guajiro  knew  that  by  becoming  himself 
American  he  could  obtain  more  of  them  he  would  exert 
himself  to  make  the  change  as  he  has  never  exerted 
himself  on  any  other  account.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
consider  the  Cuban  lazy;  he  is,  not  infrequently, 
half   sick,   because  he  is  half  fed,  half  clothed,  and 


202  ,    CUBA 

wretchedly  housed.  He  is,  however,  wiUing  to  work 
whenever  he  foresees  any  return  for  it.  He  is  unskilled, 
because  he  has  never  had  any  training ;  he  is  prone  to 
'^knock  off  the  moment  he  has  a  bit  ahead,  for  his 
climate  and  all  his  history  instruct  him  to  use  up  his 
surplus  before  it  deteriorates  or  is  taken  from  him. 
He  would  certainly  prefer  a  healthier,  fuller  life  among 
cleaner,  improved  surroundings  if  he  thought  that  to 
obtain  such  lay  within  his  means.  None  can  doubt 
it  who  observes  how  quickly  he  lays  a  board  floor  in  his 
house,  buys  himself  shoes  and  his  wife  a  hat,  in  those 
colonies  where  he  is  permitted  to  ^^  dedicate  himself 
to  earning  the  dollar  off  the  American. '^  '^What 
angers  me,^^  I  heard  one  man  who  is  the  gran  senor  in  a 
community  of  these  people  say  of  them  in  general,  but 
of  those  who  work  for  him  as  partidarios  in  growing  to- 
bacco especially,  ^'is  to  hear  the  guajiro,  my  country- 
man, called  lazy,  dirty,  ignorant,  —  to  know  that  he  is 
despised  !  How  can  he  be  other  than  he  is,  when  he 
has  never  had  a  chance  to  improve,  when  he  hasn't 
a  chance,  when  he  will  never  have  a  chance,  unless  — 
this  changes  V  ''Changes  ! ''  was  the  retort.  ''What's 
the  matter  with  this  ?  These  are  the  men  you  fought 
Palma  to  exalt !  Don't  you  like  'em?"  "My  God  !" 
(this  favorite  exclamation  of  his  is  not  as  forceful  in 
Spanish  as  it  is  in  English)  "when  we  upset  Palma  how 
did  we  know  that  the  Americans  would  go  away  so 
soon?^'  "If  you  wanted  them  back  to  remain,  could 
you  secure  a  vote  of  your  guajiros  to  that  effect?" 
"It  would  be  a  question  of  money  only,  not  for  them 
(they  would  not  be  consulted),  but  for  distribution 
among  their  leaders,  who  would  then  go  to  them,  assure 
them  that  annexation  or  whatever  you  wanted  to  make 
it  would  mean  good  money  for  our  tobacco,  and,  my 


WANTED:    A    MARKET  I  203 

God  (again),  they^d  vote  or  fight  any  way  we  told 
them/' 

They'd  vote  or  fight  for  anybody  or  any  banner  that 
assured  them  just  one  result :   a  market ! 

I  have  sometimes  wished  that  the  American  people 
would  listen,  with  ear  turned  to  the  southward,  on  some 
clear  night,  and,  with  a  De  Tornos  Method  and  a  Spanish- 
English  dictionary  in  hand,  translate  for  themselves 
the  call  from  across  Florida  Straits.  They  would, 
undoubtedly,  distinguish  the  voice  of  the  guajiro  de- 
manding, certainly  not  a  republic  of  his  own  (he's 
had  too  much  of  it !),  nor,  definitely,  annexation,  a 
protectorate,  or  any  other  particular  form  of  control, 
for  he  has  not  studied  out  the  details,  but  merely  a 
market,  —  an  honest  price  for  what  he  grows.  And, 
secondly,  that  he  be  made  to  pay  only  an  honest  price 
for  what  he  receives.  In  short,  that  he  be  no  longer 
discriminated  against  in  favor  of  his  rivals  (Porto  Rico, 
the  southern  United  States,  Hawaii)  and  told  to  go 
solace  himself,  so  handicapped,  with  his  ^'  liberty."  He 
can't  eat  or  wear  that  ''  independence  "  of  his.  He  de- 
clares that  in  poverty,  ignorance,  and  hopelessness  he's 
being  made  to  pay  too  high  a  price  for  ''  freedom." 

He  will,  unfortunately,  have  to  cry  his  protest  long  and 
loud  in  the  wilderness  of  the  virgin  lands  all  about  him 
which  he  cannot,  under  present  conditions,  cultivate ;  for 
against  him  in  clamor  rises  the  voice  of  the  ^^  sugar  trust " 
unwilling  to  free  his  sugar  from  import  duties  into  the 
United  States  because  it  competes  there  with  the  home- 
grown article ;  and  the  voice  of  the  American  tobacco 
grower,  in  similar  protest ;  and  the  united  groans  of  the 
Florida  and  California  and  Hawaiian  and  Porto  Rican 
fruit  growers,  afraid  of  the  oranges,  grapefruit,  and 
pineapples  raised  by  that  American  he  earns  the  dollar 


204  CUBA 

off;  and  the  yelp  and  outcry  of  the  pack  of  his  own 
poUticians,  who  would  lose  place  and  profit  were  the 
United  States  to  establish  here  an  economical  regime, 
lowering  duties  on  imported  foodstuffs  and  similar 
necessaries,  in  buying  which  (if  he  affords  them  at  all) 
the  Cuban  now  pays,  in  addition  to  their  value,  the  sal- 
ary of  some  government  clerk  in  a  sinecure.  Also, 
against  him  is  the  tremendous  influence  of  those  Ameri- 
can statesmen,  —  Roosevelt,  Root,  and  Taft,  —  who 
have  contributed  to  his  sad  plight,  and  who,  to  remedy 
it,  must  make  unpalatable  confession  that  they  were  in 
error  when,  respectively,  they  created  this  republic  be- 
fore its  time,  made  a  general  promise  to  uphold  it, 
bulked  in  with  all  those  of  this  hemisphere,  and,  finally, 
feared  to  set  things  straight  with  a  strong  hand  in  1906 
lest  to  do  so  cost  the  Republican  party  an  election. 

Yet  signs  of  the  times  point  to  his  ultimate  victory. 
Those  signs  are  sordid,  but  hopeful,  nevertheless. 
Chief  among  them  is  the  presence  alongside  him  of 
that  American  off  whom  the  guajiro  earns  the  dollar, 
—  in  canefield,  tobacco  field,  pineapple  patch,  and 
citrus  fruit  orchard.  The  ''  sugar  trust/^  or  at  least  ''a 
sugar  trust/'  is  acquiring  preponderance  in  Cuba's 
principal  industry;  its  money  is  American.  It  will 
soon  be  able,  and  exceedingly  willing,  to  carry  the  ques- 
tion of  Cuba's  status  to  Washington,  where  it  is  to  be 
decided,  finally.  Then,  because  it  will  presently  suit 
larger  American  interests  to  have  Cuban  sugar  pay  no 
duty  on  entering  the  United  States  than  it  now  suits 
to  compel  it  to  pay  much,  this  island  will  be  brought  into 
closer  economic  relation  to  its  only  possible  market,  — 
the  American  market.  This  closer  economic  relation 
will  probably  entail  a  thorough  change  in  the  shape  of 
Cuba's  government :    it  may  mean  annexation  or  a 


WANTED:    A    MARKET!  205 

protectorate  or  a  colonial  administration  of  some  sort, 
—  these  names  and  details  are  unimportant,  after  all. 
The  establishment  of  the  economic  relation  is  all-im- 
portant. Less  powerful  individually  than  the  sugar 
interests,  yet  aggregating  as  strong,  there  will  line  up 
tobacco  men,  weary  of  uncertainty  here  and  charges  on 
their  manufactured  products  there ;  orchardists,  vexed 
at  duties  that  handicap  them;  railways,  who  want 
their  culverts  and  rolling  stock  preserved  from  revolu- 
tionaries ;  other  property  holders  who,  like  them,  desire 
to  feel  secure ;  and  all  the  countless  varied  business 
corporations  and  individuals  throughout  the  whole 
country,  worn  out  of  patience  in  the  attempt  to  preserve 
their  credit  against  wars  and  rumors  of  wars.  All 
alike  demand  one  thing,  —  improved  economic  condi- 
tions,—  though  sometimes  they  call  it  another,  —  ^'a, 
stable  government. ^^ 

Each  of  these  forces  will  fight  the  fight  for  its  own 
particular  purpose,  —  not  one  of  them  is  laboring 
altruistically  for  the  good  of  the  Cuban  countryman. 
It  is  merely  his  excellent  fortune  that  their  fight  hap- 
pens to  be  his  fight,  with  them  powerfully  arrayed  upon 
the  side  that  is  also  his.  They  are  destined  to  win,  and 
he  will  share  in  the  fruits  of  their  victory.  Their 
opponents  here  (the  same  who  are  his  own)  are  negli- 
gible :  they  are  only  the  politicians,  accustomed  to  the 
muzzle  which  will  be  applied  when  necessary  to  stop 
their  din  that  now  confuses  the  real  question  at  issue. 
Up  yonder,  where  the  battlefield  lies,  opponents  are 
more  numerous  and  formidable ;  they  are  American 
interests  resentful  of  the  competition  of  other  Ameri- 
can interests  located  here,  which  they  are  pleased  to 
call  Cuban ;  the  American  government,  unwilling  to 
confess  to  its  mistakes,  and,  what's  most  to  be  dreaded, 


206  CUBA 

the  sentimentality  of  the  American  people,  prepossessed 
with  a  mistaken  notion  as  to  what  Cuba  really  asks  to 
receive. 

Assuredly  it  is  not  that  parasites  be  permitted  to 
/  speak  in  her  name  any  longer ;   to  parade  in  the  trap- 
/  pings  of  a  fictitious  independence ;   to  bleed  her  for  their 
/  support,  in  the  name  of  a  liberty  she  does  not  possess ; 
/   but,  instead,  nothing  more  or  less  than  opportunity  to 
/    produce  her  crops  in  quietude,  to  sell  them  for  what 
/    they  are  worth,  and  to  buy  from  the  proceeds  what 
she  must  have  at  a  fair  price  for  it.     Closer  economic 
relation  to  the  United  States  !     To  obtain  that  she'd 
actually  be  willing  to  continue  to  tolerate  this  republic 
of  hers,  if  Washington  which  erected  will  not  permit 
her  to  abolish  it ;   could  she  but  have  altered  tariffs  to 
enable  her  to  sell  what  she  might  then  grow  (even  on 
squatters'  plots  and  rented  land  !),  she'd  be  well  able  to 
support  her  politicians,  if  their  keep  is  the  penalty  laid 
upon  her  for  Washington's  erroneous  snap  judgment  of 
her    needs.     For    then,    under    altered    tariffs,    she'd 
prosper  despite  everything  else ;  she'd  be  able,  then,  to 
buy  a  new  horse  to  replace  that  Taf t  took  away ;  to 
have  leather  shoes,  and  hats  for  the  women,  and  bright 
cotton  parasols  for  the  children,  when  they  walk  out 
in  the  sun.     It  would  mean  plenty  to  eat  and  wear ; 
coffee  in  the  coffee  cups  and  cigars  and  cigarettes  for  all 
the  family,  in  every  hut  on  the  hillsides  and  in  all  the 
valleys,   from   Oriente    where   cacao   grows,    through 
Remedios,  Manicaragua,  and  the  partido  tobacco  dis- 
tricts, past  the  sugar  fields  of  Santa  Clara,  Matanzas, 
Havana,  into  Vuelta  Abajo  in  Pinar  del  Rio,  —  from 
the  cane  country  all  around  Maysi  to  the  tobacco 
regions  this  side  of  San  Anton ! 


CHAPTER  IX 

WEST   BY   WATER 

The  Shores  of  Pinar  del  Rio 

PiNAR  DEL  Rio  is  the  westernmost  of  the  five  topo- 
graphic provinces  into  which  Nature  divided  the 
Island  of  Cuba ;  it  is  also  the  westernmost  of  the  six 
political  provinces  of  which  man  has  constituted  the 
Republic  of  Cuba.  It  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  an 
arbitrary  line  separating  it  from  Havana  Province, 
irregularly  drawn  from  Estero  de  Baracoa  on  the  north 
coast  to  a  point  a  little  west  of  Embarcadero  de  Guani- 
mar  on  the  south  coast.  An  imaginary  straight  line 
between  these  two  points  has  a  general  southwesterly 
trend ;  from  about  this  vicinity  the  whole  island  seems 
to  bend  south  and  west.  The  distance  between  Estero 
de  Baracoa  and  Embarcadero  de  Guanimar  is  thirty- 
four  miles,  as  a  buzzard,  say,  —  the  largest  bird  visible 
in  those  skies,  — might  fly  if,  circling  above  the  inlet 
(estero),  he  suddenly  discovered  he  had  immediate 
business  at  the  southern  boundary  post.  The  narrow- 
est part  of  Cuba  is  a  little  west  of  the  boundary  line : 
from  Mariel  to  Ma j  ana  the  distance,  in  a  straight  line, 
is  given  as  twenty  miles. 

The  most  northerly  point  in  the  province,  Punta 
Gobernadora,  four  miles  west  of  Bahia  Honda,  lies  in 
latitude  23°  1',  longitude  83°  14' ;  the  most  southerly, 
Cabo  Corrientes,  in  latitude  21°  43^  The  latitude 
and  longitude  of  Roncali  Lighthouse,   on  Cape  San 

207 


208  CUBA 

Antonio,  the  far  western  extremity  of  province  and 
island  alike,  are  given  as  21°  51^;   84°  58^ 

The  Province  of  Pinar  del  Rio  is  completely  debarred 
from  direct  communication  with  the  outside  world.  It 
has  290  miles  of  coastline,  —  130  washed  by  the  Carib- 
bean Sea,  and  160  washed  by  waters  pouring  through 
Florida  Straits,  —  yet  in  all  that  extent  there  are  but 
three  deep  water  harbors  (Mariel,  Cabanas,  Bahia 
Honda),  none  of  which  is  at  present  frequented  by  any 
craft  plying  regularly  to  and  from  a  foreign  shore. 
On  the  south  side  of  the  province  the  sea  is  so  shallow 
that  vessels  drawing  scant  six  feet  stir  the  bottom 
sands  in  passing.  On  the  north,  the  shore  is  paralleled 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  —  from  Cape  San 
Antonio  to  Bahia  Honda  —  by  the  half-submerged 
and  wholly  dangerous  line  of  the  Colorado  Reefs. 
Between  them  and  the  land  is  shoal  water.  It  is  be- 
cause the  province  is,  in  this  fashion,  completely  sur- 
rounded by  shallows,  which  prevent  transocean  craft 
from  drawing  near  to  western  harbors  at  present  in 
use,  that  travelers,  along  with  all  merchandise  destined 
to  any  point  within  its  boundaries,  are  compelled  to 
enter  via  Havana.  From  Havana  the  way  west  is 
open,  overland,  by  rail  and  by  road,  and,  overwater, 
by  north  and  by  south  shore. 

The  little  steamer  Julian  Alonso  on  which  we  made 
the  sea  trip  west,  by  north  coast,  is  comparatively  new, 
and  we  heard  with  pleasure  that  she  was  built  in  Scot- 
land, where  they  do  that  sort  of  thing  rather  well,  as 
we  turned  away  from  Morro  that  night  in  the  face  of  a 
threatening  sky  on  a  choppy  sea  that  seemed  fairly  to 
spit  its  contempt.  My  recollections  of  that  voyage  are 
painful.  To  begin  with,  the  start  was  made  twenty-four 
hours  late.     When  we  arranged  for  our  transportation, 


WEST    BY    WATER  209 

we  were  assured  by  the  owner  that  the  steamer  would 
leave  with  very  great  exactitude  on  the  stroke  of  ten 
on  a  Sunday  night ;  otherwise  the  entire  post-office 
department  of  Cuba  would  be  thrown  into  irremediable 
confusion.  Sharp  at  nine  on  the  proper  evening  we 
arrived,  bag  and  baggage,  at  the  dock,  only  to  find 
that,  regardless  of  the  precious  mail  contract  of  which 
he  boasted,  the  owner  had  decided  to  lay  over  a  day ; 
it  had  not  occurred  to  him  to  notify  any  of  his  prospec- 
tive passengers.  My  abiding  indignation  at  this  con- 
tinued to  abide  even  after  they  had  quartered  my 
mother  and  me  in  the  bridal  stateroom,  though  I  con- 
fess that  as  I  lay  supine  watching  the  gorgeous  trappings 
of  its  berths  and  its  portholes  flap  to  the  vessel's  roll, 
this  indignation  was  gradually  commingled  with  far 
more  intimate  emotions.  I  recall  with  internal  re- 
vulsion yet  the  appearance  of  the  long  table  they  set 
down  the  middle  of  the  social  hall  and  loaded  to  creak- 
ing with  every  dish  Spaniards  and  Cubans  prize ;  I 
remember,  too,  the  persistency  with  which  anxious 
waiters  tendered  us  fish  afloat  in  oil,  meats  garnished 
with  garlic,  rice  glistening  with  lard,  thick  black 
coffee,  sweetened  tea,  and  all  the  delicacies  on  the  menu 
as  dessert,  only  to  retire  them  one  after  the  other  in 
pained  discouragement  while  the  captain  murmured 
that  it  was  difficult,  obviously,  to  please  these  Ameri- 
cans. I  believe  we  passed  Mariel,  and  Cabafias  and 
Bahia  Honda  :  I  have  an  indistinct  impression  of  quiet 
waters,  green  keys,  and  a  blue  bulk  of  mighty  moun- 
tains somewhere  near  at  hand,  but  far  more  clearly 
do  I  bring  to  mind  that  even  the  '^seafoam'^  biscuits 
we  had  brought  with  us  proved  to  be  stale,  and  there 
was  no  relief,  no,  not  anywhere  ! 

I  had  particularly  wanted  to  see  the  region  which 


210  CUBA 

got  by  me  unobserved.  This  north  coast  is  the  sugar- 
producing  section  of  the  western  province;  four  of 
Pinar  del  Rio's  seven  mills  are  in  the  vicinity  of  Caba- 
nas. Bahia  Honda  is  a  United  States  coaling  station ; 
no  steps  have  been  taken  toward  its  improvement  unless 
the  completion  of  a  macadamized  road  connecting  it 
with  Havana  be  counted  such :  over  this  highway 
troops  could,  were  it  necessary,  be  thrown  upon  Ha- 
vana without  any  loss  of  time.  Bahia  Honda  harbor 
is  entered  by  way  of  a  narrow  channel,  in  direction 
almost  due  north  and  south,  about  two  miles  in  length, 
quite  straight,  with  water  sufficient  to  accommodate 
vessels  of  the  greatest  draught ;  the  middle  of  the 
harbor  and  the  shore  line  are  taken  up  by  coral  reefs, 
greatly  reducing  available  space,  but  there  remains 
room  for  the  largest  vessels  at  single  anchor.  Ameri- 
cans and  Canadians  own  plantations  all  through  here. 

Between  Cabanas  and  Bahia  Honda  the  Colorado 
Reefs  begin  to  assemble.  Just  beyond  Bahia 
Honda  light-draught  coasters  enter  into  the  shoal 
water  between  these  reefs  and  the  island ;  it  is  navi- 
gable, among  keys  and  numerous  heads  of  rock,  for 
those  drawing  not  more  than  ten  or  eleven  feet. 

Inasmuch  as  the  outer  limits  of  the  Colorado  Reefs 
are  but  imperfectly  defined  on  charts,  and  even  the 
lead  is  not  a  sure  guide,  deep-draught  vessels  give  the 
rocks  a  wide  berth,  passing  far  north  of  them,  en  route 
between  Gulf  ports  of  Mexico  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 
On  the  horizon  we  saw  the  smutch  of  some  steamer, 
steering  clear.  I  searched  the  water  between  us,  as  we 
picked  our  way  close  in,  and  that  distant  smoke,  for  a 
glimpse  of  the  hidden  danger  both  shunned,  but  not  a 
break  ruffled  the  surface  ;  not  a  sign  proclaimed  that  this 
is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  coasts  that  mariners  know. 


WEST    BY    WATEB  211 

Fancy  assembled  for  me  on  those  quiet  waters  mem- 
ories of  fleets  that  used  to  dare  their  dangers  in  days 
when  voyages  here  were  not  always  monotonous.  I 
conjured  up  the  ghost  of  Cornelius  Jols,  '^celebrated  in 
the  naval  annals  of  the  Dutch/ ^  Known  to  the  Span- 
iards as  Peg-Leg  the  Pirate,  he  was  honored  in  his  own 
land  with  the  rank  of  admiral  in  that  navy  which,  cross- 
ing at  its  will  from  hemisphere  to  hemisphere,  kept  all 
America  alarmed  during  the  years  of  Spain's  desperate 
fight  with  the  gallant  Low  Countries.  Peg-Leg  spent 
the  summer,  in  1629,  on  this  west  coast  of  Cuba,  taking 
on  wood  and  water  now  at  Cabanas,  now  at  Bahia 
Honda,  and  again  sailing  around  to  the  Isle  of  Pines, 
where  there  was  always  congenial  company.  He  got, 
meanwhile,  for  his  pains,  no  booty  save  what  a  few  in- 
significant coasting  vessels  afforded.  Disgusted  with 
his  luck,  he  actually  lined  up  to  attack  Havana ;  on 
August  29  he  threatened  Chorrera  and  exchanged 
shots  with  Morro,  but  evidently  thought  twice  on  the 
matter,  because  on  September  9  he  disappeared  over 
the  horizon,  to  the  very  great  relief  of  the  city  that  saw 
him  go.  In  1630,  still  another  Dutch  fleet  hung  about 
Cuba,  rounding  Cape  San  Antonio  along  the  first  of 
March,  but  far  from  obtaining  any  booty  it  lost  one  of 
its  own  vessels  on  Caiman  shoals,  from  which  wreck 
the  captain  general  of  Cuba  helped  himself  to  thirty 
cannon.  Cornelius  Jols  came  back  again  in  1638,  with 
ten  large  galleons  in  his  command  :  on  arrival  in  West 
Indian  waters  he  was  reinforced  by  six  more  which  met 
him,  and  by  several  private  filibusters  anxious  to  avenge 
the  discomfiture  they  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniard,  D.  Carlos  de  Ibarra,  who  cleaned  them  out  of 
the  pirate  stronghold  of  Tortuga  in  that  same  year. 
Jols  met  Ibarra  himself  off  Cabanas.     The  Spaniard 


212  CUBA 

was  escorting  seven  galleons  out  of  Cartagena  with 
Peruvian  treasure  aboard.  A  pitched  battle  followed ; 
no  fiercer  engagement  was  ever  fought  in  Cuban  waters, 
not  even  in  1898,  when  Americans  received  Cervera  just 
off  Santiago  de  Cuba.  Peg-Leg's  own  ship  and  five 
others  of  his  best  vessels  bore  down  on  the  flagship  of 
the  Spanish  convoy  and  the  captain  ship  of  the  treasure 
fleet.  These  two  vessels  were  the  ones  which  might  be 
expected,  according  to  custom,  to  carry  coined  money 
and  bullion  bars.  ^^  Whirls  of  smoke  arose,  lighted  for 
a  moment  at  the  cannon's  mouth  by  the  fire  of  the  dis- 
charge. The  thunder  of  shots  added  tumult  to  the 
scene  which  the  smoke,  settling,  partly  hid.  .  .  .  The 
captain  ship  and  the  flagship  were  hard  beset.  .  .  . 
Peg-Leg  tangled  his  rigging  with  Ibarra's.  ..." 
Boarding  hooks  were  thrown.  ^^But  the  Spanish  in- 
fantry aboard  that  day,"  Pezuela,  the  historian,  re- 
marks proudly,  ''had  fought  in  Flanders  and  in  Italy. 
They  were  men  who  knew  how  to  win  on  sea  as  well  as 
on  land.  Not  once  did  they  fire  save  at  the  voice  of 
command,  and  their  shots  told  with  deadly  effect.  Not 
a  Dutchman  Uved  to  board  a  Spanish  ship.  Exhausted 
and  sick  with  loss  of  blood  from  a  serious  wound  and 
seeing  that  all  his  attempts  to  fire  the  enemy's  vessels 
had  failed,  Peg-Leg  ordered  the  retreat  late  in  the  after- 
noon. More  than  400  men  were  killed,  and  many 
more  than  that  number  were  wounded.  Some  of  his 
vessels  were  leaking,  and  the  rigging  of  all  was  awry. 
Ibarra,  injured  by  a  fragment  of  exploding  shell,  but 
still  on  foot  and  in  command,  gave  chase.  ..."  The 
plate  fleet  took  refuge  in  Cabaiias  Bay.  Adverse  winds 
prevented  it  from  continuing  to  Havana,  near  as  that 
safe  harbor  was.  It  returned  instead  to  Vera  Cruz. 
Jols  saw  it  go,  and  sent  a  few  shots  after  it.     He  did 


WEST    BY    WATER  213 

not,  however,  venture  to  attack,  despite  the  fact  that 
additional  fiUbusters,  Uke  birds  of  prey  scenting  a  meal, 
had  joined  him.  King  Felipe  IV  of  Spain  rewarded 
Ibarra  and  his  men  with  praise,  promotion,  and  pen- 
sions ;  they  had  saved  more  than  thirty  millions  to  his 
treasury  by  that  one  day's  work. 

As  Jols  and  Ibarra  blew  hence,  like  the  smoke  of  their 
combat,  lost  on  the  skirts  of  the  Organos,  almost  three 
centuries  ago,  I  saw  instead,  passing  in  ghostly  defile, 
those  humbler  seafarers,  led  by  the  Hattie  Weston 
(whose  captain  found  a  reef  and  lost  a  ship  not  so  many 
years  ago),  —  schooners,  tramp  streamers,  nondescript 
merchantmen  whose  goodly  company  is  swelled  each 
year  by  sacrifices  Neptune  still  demands,  on  the  altars 
of  the  Colorado  Reefs  ! 

While  I  watched,  a  fisherman's  little  schooner  bore 
down  on  us  from  the  north.  It  had  passed  through  the 
reefs  safely,  by  way  of  some  one  of  those  breaks  in  the 
rocks  experienced  navigators  know,  into  which  they 
ride  their  light-draught  craft  when  wind  and  weather 
favor  the  hazard  of  such  passage. 

The  coast,  westward  from  Bahia  Honda,  now  lying 
very  low  and  flat,  now  rolling  in  dry  hills,  timber- 
covered,  is  fringed  with  mangroves  which  grow  to 
the  water's  edge ;  here  and  there  are  promontories  and 
detached  keys,  islets  held  together  by  mangrove  roots, 
isolated  and  in  groups.  In  the  distance,  to  landward, 
rise  the  Organos,  somber,  irregular  in  outline,  ending 
abruptly  in  the  two  sentinel  peaks  that  stand  above  the 
town  of  Guane.  Cacarajicara,  Pan  de  Azucar,  Gua- 
jaibon  (called  Saddle  Hill  in  English),  and  other  high 
and  noted  peaks  are  readily  distinguished  and  serve  to 
guide  vessels  beating  up. 


214  CUBA 

The  more  flourishing  of  the  ports  at  which  coasters 
stop  (San  Cayetano,  Dimas,  and  Arroyos,  for  instance), 
from  warehouses  ashore  send  forth  wooden  piers  into 
nine  or  ten  feet  of  water,  and  to  these  the  weekly 
steamer  ties.  From  other  ports,  either  in  sight  on 
shore  or  hidden  up-river,  Hghters  put  out  to  receive 
cargo  and  passengers. 

Our  particular  destination  was  Ocean  Beach,  off 
which  the  Julian  Alonso  made  pause  at  ten  o'clock  at 
night.  We  made  ready  to  descend  into  a  lighter 
rocking  uneasily  in  the  darkness  below.  Suddenly  a 
lantern  was  lifted  from  a  seat  we  were  evidently 
expected  to  occupy,  and  its  rays  fell  on  the  face  of  a 
friend.  Though  he  wore  a  two  weeks'  rebellious  beard 
and  the  hat  of  a  border  ruffian,  no  man  ever  looked 
so  good  to  us  as  that  one,  as  he  extended  a  helping 
hand,  and  announced  reassuringly,  in  Enghsh  :  '^  Well, 
here  you  are.'' 

The  steamer  proceeded  further  westward,  to  Juan 
Lopez.  I  do  not  remember  her  particularly  as  she  faded 
into  the  night,  for,  oddly  enough,  I  see  her  as  she  must 
have  looked  upon  another  and  later  occasion.  During 
a  recent  cyclone,  —  or  rather,  in  the  confusion  imme- 
diately following  it,  —  word  reached  Havana  that  the 
Julian  Alonso  J  caught  by  the  storm,  had  been  sunk  off 
the  north  coast  of  Pinar  del  Rio.  Speculation  as  to 
probable  loss  of  life  began.  The  owner,  however,  pres- 
ently received  details :  the  vessel  had  been  sunk,  — 
quite  correct,  —  not  by  the  storm,  however,  but  by 
her  cautious  captain,  who  selected  a  nice  soft  mudbank 
in  a  sheltered  spot,  opened  her  seacocks,  and  sat  her 
down  in  shallow  water  while  the  hurricane,  undoubtedly 
duly  scandalized  at  the  performance,  blew  over.  He 
later  pumped   out  his  good  ship,  and  came  floating 


WEST    BY    WATER  215 

jauntily  back  to  Havana,  little  the  worse  for  his  aston- 
ishing maneuver. 

Cape  San  Antonio,  the  west  end  of  Pinar  del  Rio 
Province  and  of  the  island  of  Cuba,  is,  they  say,  low, 
covered  with  trees  from  seventy  to  eighty  feet  high, 
which,  seen  before  the  land  by  vessels  approaching  from 
the  west,  often  appear  like  ships  under  sail.  The  shore 
is  intersected  alternately  by  ragged  limestone  cliffs  and 
sandy  beaches.  The  extreme  end  of  the  island  bends 
round  so  gradually  for  about  four  miles  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  make  out  any  projecting  point :  the  cape  can  be 
distinguished  only  by  Roncali  lighthouse  towering  there 
upon  the  sands.  The  vicinity  is  reputed  to  be  as  cheer- 
ful as  its  names  :  Dead  Man^s  Point,  for  instance.  Coffin 
Point,  and  Tombs,  which,  I  take  it,  is  the  name  of  what- 
ever settlement  exists.  Good  water  is  to  be  had,  and 
they  say  there  is  no  other  inducement  to  land,  yet  I 
know  that  I,  for  one,  have  always  entertained  an  unex- 
plained but  keen  desire  to  see  Cape  San  Antonio.  I 
would  like  to  know  who  named  it,  and  why ;  probably  it 
was  Sebastian  de  Campo,  that  ^^  gentleman  of  Galicia,  a 
follower  of  Queen  Isabel,  who  came  to  the  New  World 
with  the  First  Admiral,  Columbus,  in  1493,''  since  he 
was  the  first  Caucasian  to  round  it,  when  he  circum- 
navigated Cuba,  proving  that  this  is  an  island,  and  not 
part  of  the  mainland  as  it  was  thought  to  be  up  to  the 
time  of  his  voyage,  in  1508. 

No  correct  and  complete  survey  has  ever  been  made 
of  the  Caribbean  south  of  Pinar  del  Rio.  It  is  very 
seldom  that  vessels  of  any  importance  are  called  into 
this  neighborhood. 

Names  of  capes  and  bays  here  commemorate  events 
of  which  they  were  the  scenes.  There  are  Hollanders' 
Point  and  French  Cape,  and  especially  Punta  Perpetua, 


216  CUBA 

and  Cabo  de  Aguirre,  concerning  which  is  told  a  pretty 
tale  of  a  hero  of  Vuelta  Abajo.  Offshore  in  that  imme- 
diate vicinity,  in  the  year  1794,  Don  Antonio  Aguirre, 
in  command  of  his  frigate,  the  Perpetua,  captured  two 
French  brigantines,  the  Liberie  and  the  Sans  Culotte. 
He  took  prisoners  150  men.  The  vicoroy,  Azanza, 
expressed  a  desire  to  meet  so  valiant  a  fighter  as  Aguirre 
had  shown  himself  to  be,  and  a  short  time  afterwards 
the  hero  was  presented  to  His  Excellency.  ''I  am  glad 
to  know  you.  Friend  Aguirre,^'  exclaimed  the  viceroy, 
intending  to  flatter  with  condescension.  '^And  I  to 
know  you,  Friend  Azanza,''  replied  Aguirre,  meeting 
him  squarely  on  his  own  terms.  The  viceroy  started 
with  astonishment  at  such  unwonted  familiarity.  '^  Ah, 
pardon  me.  Your  Excellency,''  continued  Aguirre,  as 
though  hastening  to  rectify  a  mistake,  ^^when  I  heard 
that  word  'friend,'  I  thought  a  friend  used  it,  but  now 
I  see  that  it  was  instead  His  Excellency,  Seiior  Viceroy 
Don  Miguel  Jose  Azanza."  The  conclusion  is  that  the 
viceroy  arose  to  the  occasion.  '^ Singular  man,"  he 
cried,  ''an  embrace  !  You  are  of  the  stripe  I  admire.'' 
They  were  fast  friends,  Tranquilino  Sandalio  de  Noda 
states,  from  that  hour.  Azanza  always  spoke  highly  of 
the  lesson  in  equality,  firmness,  and  courtesy  which 
Aguirre  taught  him,  also  according  to  Noda,  who  saw 
correspondence  that  passed  between  the  two.  ''  Aguirre, 
instead  of  demanding  a  reward  for  his  services,  ceded  to 
the  state,  which  was  in  need,  what  of  the  booty  fell  to 
his  share.  Moreover,  he  added  $300  from  his  own 
pocket.  He  had  already  given  a  priest  $100  for  masses 
offered  that  God  might  grant  him  to  meet  his  enemies 
soon." 

A  weekly  steamer,  the  Veguero^  plies  between  Bata- 


WEST    BY    WATER  217 

bano,  opposite  Havana  on  the  south  shore,  and  Puerto 
Cortes,  ahas  Cortes '  Lake,  ahas  Pirates'  Lagoon.  This 
harbor  has  two  and  a  half  fathoms  of  water,  but 
at  its  entrance,  very  narrow  between  two  green  keys, 
there  is  less  than  six  feet.  The  bay  is  quite  land- 
locked. 

On  the  shore  opposite  the  entrance  is  a  settle- 
ment, —  warehouses,  a  pier,  a  bathhouse,  a  hotel,  a  post- 
office,  and  other  signs  of  life  supported  by  the  prosperity 
of  a  big  tobacco-producing  region  lying  inland,  especially 
around  Remates  and  Las  Martinas.  Off  Puerto  Cortes 
lies  the  red  hulk  of  a  Spanish  merchantman,  a  blockade 
runner,  which  went  aground  and  was  burned  by  her 
captors  during  the  Spanish  American  War.  Residents 
here  will  tell  you  sadly,  remembering,  evidently,  some- 
thing of  the  starvation  they  were  enduring  at  the  time, 
that  only  a  little  flour  got  ashore.  Cortes  got  its  name, 
I  fancy,  from  the  conqueror  of  Mexico.  He  captured, 
I  believe,  some  vessels  in  this  vicinity,  which  he  com- 
pelled to  accompany  him  on  his  expedition  ;  he  referred 
to  his  conduct  later  with  some  pride,  exclaiming  :  ^^  Ah, 
I  was  the  proper  sort  of  pirate  in  those  days  !  '^  Perhaps 
in  this  lagoon  he  overlooked  his  victims  and  laid  out  for 
them  their  immediate  itinerary. 

Between  Puerto  Cortes  and  Batabano  the  coast  is 
monotonously  the  same.  Between  Cortes  and  Coloma 
it  is  very  low  and  very  flat ;  on  the  northern  horizon, 
now,  are  the  Organos,  cut  by  gullies  and  thinly  clad 
with  spindling  pines.  In  the  vicinity  of  Pinar  del  Rio 
City,  above  Coloma,  they  begin  to  trend  away,  disap- 
pearing into  mist,  amid  which,  however,  one  can  still 
distinguish  the  familiar  outlines  of  the  same  peaks 
(Cacarajicaras,  Pan  de  Azucar,  and  Saddle  Hill)  seen 


218  CUBA 

nearer  at  hand  from  the  north  shore.  Once  the  range 
is  lost,  all  the  voyager  sees  from  there  eastward  is  tran- 
quil transparent  sea-  above  light  sands  over  which  the 
steamer  picks  its  way,  sounding  as  it  goes.  Absolute 
placidity  !  One  would  surely  be  justified  in  searching 
here  for  the  Islands  of  the  Blest. 

Instead,  what  searching  is  done  is  for  buried  treasure. 
Of  half  a  dozen  ports  hereabouts  they  tell  the  story  of  the 
guarded  treasure  chest.  It  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay, 
plainly  to  be  seen  through  the  shallow  waters  in  pleasant 
weather.  Crossed  on  its  lid  are  antique  firearms.  The 
version  I  got  was  that  certain  gentlemen  of  Guira,  hav- 
ing discovered  the  chest,  went  out  in  a  boat  with  tackle 
to  hoist  it  to  the  surface.  All  went  well  until  they 
lifted  the  chest  into  the  air,  when  shooting  in  most  pro- 
miscuous style  began.  Each  man,  to  defend  himself, 
fell  upon  his  neighbor.  A  free  fight  ensued.  The 
chest  dropped  to  the  bottom ;  clouds  of  mud,  arising, 
obscured  it  from  view.  To  this  day  those  gentlemen  of 
Guira  are  not  quite  sure  whether  members  of  their  own 
party  or  the  rusted  arquebuses  crossed  on  the  chest's 
lid,  fired,  alarming  them.  At  any  rate,  they  got  no 
treasure.  It  is  still  there,  at  the  bottom  of  this  bay  or 
that  inlet,  awaiting  whoever  dares  undertake  to  hoist  it, 
weapons  and  all,  to  the  top. 

While  we  lay  at  anchor  at  Cortes  a  negro  came  aboard 
and  asked  the  loan  of  whatever  instrument  or  appa- 
ratus it  is  ships  keep  to  enable  their  masters  to  peer 
into  the  water :  a  glass-bottomed  bucket,  or  something 
of  that  sort  I  understood.  This  negro  had  found  some- 
thing interesting,  he  thought,  sunk  somewhere.  His  pe- 
tition was  not  granted ;  the  captain  was  weary,  he  said, 
of  befuddled  treasure  seekers.     Who  knows  over  what 


WEST    BY    WATER  219 

lost  wealth  we  bumped  along,  back  that  pleasant  No- 
vember, from  Cortes  to  Batabano? 

I  remember  the  steamship  Veguero  kindly.  And  so 
I  should  !  Did  it  not  put  back  to  port  for  us  when,  hav- 
ing misunderstood  the  sailing  time,  we  came  galloping 
down  to  Punta  de  Cartas,  en  volanta,  from  San  Juan, 
only  two  hours  late  by  the  watch  Senor  Pinillos  held  in 
his  hand,  as  he  stood  by  the  rail  still  scanning  the  half- 
finished  cart  road  in  hopes  to  see  us,  as,  luckily  for  us, 
he  did  !  Our  driver  had  been  inspired  by  the  mournful 
tootling  with  which  the  Veguero  proclaimed  to  earth 
and  air  and  sea  that  two  hours'  wait  was  all  that  could 
be  expected  of  any  respectable  steamer.  He  astonished 
us,  his  fares  all  unsuspecting  imminent  calamity  such  as 
desertion  on  that  particular  shore  would  have  seemed, 
by  a  sudden  burst  of  speed :  over  the  undressed  maca- 
dam he  bounced  us,  out  of  the  mangrove  clumps,  up  to 
the  pier,  whereupon  the  Veguero,  rounding  gracefully, 
put  back,  and  received  us.  We  learned  then  that  the 
hour  of  departure  from  Punta  de  Cartas  was  ten,  not 
twelve  o'clock. 

Admirable  Veguero!  We  ate  at  a  httle  table  laid 
on  deck,  under  an  awning.  There  was  an  American 
negro  steward,  and  he  eliminated  grease  and  garlic,  — 
watermelons  and  yellow-legged  chickens  be  his  reward  ! 
Occasionally,  one  overbold  sailor  emerged  from  a 
companionway  to  regard  us  with  interest.  Never  had 
either  of  us  ever  beheld  a  creature  cut  so  close  to  the 
original  pattern  of  human  brute  !  What  inteUigence 
the  cranium  held  was  animated  by  a  curiosity  not  at  all 
ill-intentioned,  but  the  very  wide,  thick,  short-toed  feet 
of  that  sailorman  annoyed  us,  until,  I  fear,  our  uneasi- 
ness showed,  for  we  observed  that  he  was  shortly  ordered 


220  CUBA 

below.  He  indeed  would  have  been  at  home  in  a  pirate 
crew,  and,  regarding  him,  I  was  almost  relieved  to  re- 
flect that  some  centuries  of  time  elapsed  are  a  bar  across 
which  those  famous  'Hhieves  by  sea''  cannot  come 
sailing  back  into  reality,  no  matter  how  light  draught 
are  their  ^4ow  rakish''  craft, — seen  to  best  advantage 
^4n  the  offing"  ! 


.^ 


CHAPTER  X 


THE    LAND 


Sierra  de  los  Organos 


All  the  western  end  of  Cuba  is  dominated  by  the 
Organo  Mountains,  which  begin  in  hills  rising  here  and 
there  from  the  general  plain  of  Havana  Province; 
near  Mariel  they  marshal  themselves  into  more  aggres- 
sive array,  increasing  in  size  and  number,  improving  in 
orderliness  of  arrangement,  becoming,  in  short,  a  for- 
midable sierra  that  extends,  broken  by  passes,  west- 
ward to  Guane,  there  terminating  abruptly  in  twin 
peaks  above  the  ancient  town. 

The  Range  is  composed  of  many  ridges,  parallel  and 
interlapping,  lying,  in  general,  northeast  by  southwest. 
These  constitute  a  gigantic  maze,  a  veritable  labyrinth 
of  steep  and  sparsely  settled  or  unpopulated  valleys, 
all  very  much  alike.  Their  slopes  are  green  with  luxuri- 
ant vegetation.  Here  and  there  a  bare  cliff  —  like  a 
blanched  face  exposed  —  shows  on  what  firm  base  this 
tangle  of  tropical  foliage  has  taken  root.  The  back- 
bone of  the  Organo  Range  is  hard  blue  limestone,  not 
distinctly  crystalline,  intersected  with  small  white  veins 
of  calcite.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  formations  not  only  in 
Cuba,  but  in  all  the  world^s  physical  make-up.  Upon 
this  hard  blue  base  are  laid  strata  of  softer,  lighter-hued 
limestones,  and  some  sandstones,  readily  eroded.     In 

221 


222  CUBA 

these  water  has  worn  caverns  that  fairly  honeycomb 
the  hills. 

The  aboriginal  Indians  knew  these  caves,  and  in  them 
sought  refuge  from  their  Spanish  conquerors.  They 
were  joined,  as  the  years  passed,  by  runaway  slaves 
known  as  negros  cimarrones  {cimarron  meaning  wild 
or  savage)  and  to  this  desperate  company  of  red  and 
black  refugees,  fleeing  extermination  and  slavery,  were 
admitted  outlaw  whites  who  had  good  reason  to  shun 
their  kind,  —  murderers,  smugglers,  highwaymen,  and 
disreputable  characters  of  every  impossible  variety. 
They  herded  together  in  places  least  liable  to  discovery, 
but  well  adapted  to  defense  in  case  of  need,  and  these 
fortified  camps  of  theirs  were  called  palenques  (stock- 
ades) .  There  was  war  between  all  residents  in  palenques 
and  the  settlers  on  the  plains  below,  —  cattlemen  these, 
for  the  most  part,  in  those  early  days,  from  whom  the 
cimarrones  stole  what  fresh  meat  they  desired.  Owners  so 
robbed  organized  hunting  parties  and  routed  the  thieves 
from  their  dens,  or  died  trying  to,  like  Ramon  Cordero, 
who,  when  he  saw  the  impossibility  of  attacking  a  cer- 
tain stockade  in  the  Campanario  Hills  save  in  single  file, 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  column,  '^because,'' 
he  explained,  '^I  have  the  smallest  family. ''  So  he  led 
the  way  to  death  he  knew  awaited  him,  and  met  it  there 
'^without  once  looking  back.''  Then  travelers  had  to 
go  armed  prepared  for  encounters  like  that  sustained  by 
Otero,  ^^  who  in  the  sierras,  when  he  had  only  a  lance  with 
him,  overcame  two  wild  Indians  and  a  negro,  who  shot 
him  full  of  arrows,  despite  which  he  did  not  flee  though 
pierced  through  the  breast.  He  killed  the  biggest 
Indian.  .  .  .  And  Malvar  who  was  with  him,  — 
wounded,  one  arm  helpless,  —  neither  fled  nor  aban- 
doned his  dying  companion,  but  maintained  the  unequal 


THE    LAND  223 

fight  until  his  adversaries  retreated.  Then,  and  not 
before,  he  retired,  carrying  with  him  his  unfortunate 
friend,  already  almost  dead,  who,  in  fact,  did  die,  very 
shortly  afterwards/^  Again,  the  warfare  between  out- 
law mongrels  in  the  hills  and  white  citizens  on  the  plain 
took  on  an  even  fiercer  aspect.  Homes  where  the 
women  and  children  were  sheltered  were  at  distances  one 
from  another,  for  the  cattle  ranges  into  which  all  the 
country  was  divided  in  that  day  were  immense  estates ; 
the  herds  had  a  wide  run,  and  to  attend  them  properly  the 
men  were  necessarily  absent  on  the  ranges  for  days  at  a 
time.  While  they  were  gone  the  cimarrones  sometimes 
attacked  their  helpless  families.  It  was  no  uncommon 
tragedy  which  occurred  once  ^^on  the  plantation  Del 
Toro,  in  the  Palacios  district,  where  a  family  lived  in  a 
solitary  place.  .  .  .  The  husband  was  not  at  home. 
His  brother,  young  Paez  '^  (and,  by  the  way,  this  family 
is  at  present  most  prominent  in  the  village  of  Consola- 
cion  where  its  members  are  noted  now  for  political  as  well 
as  military  prowess)  '^  was  in  charge  of  the  house.  ... 
One  day  he  heard  a  great  noise,  and,  rushing  to  the  door, 
saw  coming  a  mob  of  cimarrones,  whose  furious  cries  and 
open  attack  demonstrated  plainly  their  intention.  He 
was  one  man  against  fifty  savages.  To  abandon  the 
house  and  save  himself  was  an  easy  thing  to  do,  but  it 
meant  to  desert  the  family  left  to  his  care.  To  save 
them  and  himself,  too,  was  obviously  impossible.  .  .  . 
Paez  ordered  his  sister-in-law  to  flee  with  the  children. 
^ While  they  are  killing  me,'  he  cried,  ^you  will  have 
time  to  escape  into  the  bush  !'  He  made  the  woman 
go  while  he  remained.  To  give  her  time  to  hide  he  enter- 
tained the  savages  in  a  good  fight,  selling  his  blood  dear. 
He  had  but  a  machete,  and  they  were  fifty  to  one,  so  he 
fell  finally.     They  wreaked  their  rage  on  his  dead  body. '' 


224  CUBA 

All  this  occurred  many,  many  years  ago  ;  the  dark  green 
mountains  of  northern  Pinar  harbor  no  desperate  char- 
acters any  longer ;  the  only  inhabitants  of  their  fast- 
nesses now  are  the  hospitable  guajiro  and  his  garrulous 
wife,  to  whom  the  explorer  is  a  welcome  diversion  in  the 
monotony  of  their  loneliness. 

One  particularly  picturesque  set  of  the  small  deep 
valleys  common  to  the  Organos,  —  hardly  more  than 
great  clefts  in  surrounding  rocks,  —  is  to  be  found  in 
hills  known  as  Sierra  del  Infierno,  within  a  few  hours^ 
riding  distance  of  Pinar  del  Rio  City.  Roads  leading 
that  way  dwindle  into  trails  up  and  down  steep  slopes, 
along  the  tops  of  narrow  ridges,  from  where  wide 
views  of  exquisite  landscape,  extending  even  to  the 
Caribbean  Sea  on  the  south,  are  to  be  had ;  thence, 
finally,  into  a  gorge  so  narrow  one  might  readily  toss 
a  stone  across.  Here,  on  fertile  bottom  lands,  an  in- 
dustrious countryman  has  built  his  hut  and  tilled  what 
ground  there  is,  for  the  planting  of  corn  and  tobacco  in 
rotation.  No  wheeled  vehicle  could  possibly  be  of  any 
service  in  this  neighborhood.  A  little  creek  runs  the 
length  of  the  valley,  disappearing  at  its  farther  end 
through  a  tunnel  cut  by  a  stream  in  the  canon's  wall. 
Venturing  through  it  the  traveler  finds  himself  in  an 
unroofed  circle,  completely  shut  in  by  white  cliffs.  He 
stands  within  what  was  once  a  cave,  until  the  top  fell 
in.  There  is  but  one  entrance,  the  narrow  door  in  the 
living  rock,  by  which  he  came ;  there  is  no  other  exit. 
The  walls  round  about  are  full  of  cavities,  some  of 
sufficient  dimensions  to  wear  the  title  of  caves  indeed. 
Through  one  series  of  these  the  little  stream  vanishes. 
When  I  visited  this  place  it  was  raining ;  the  path  the 
length  of  the  valley  had  become,  in  the  downpour,  a 
stream   of    some   volume.     The  sound  of    its  waters 


THE    LAND  225 

echoed  formidably  in  the  tunnel,  frightening  our  horses 
till  they  shook,  but  advanced,  nevertheless,  like  good 
cavalry  mounts,  as  they  were  ordered  to  do.  The 
caves  where  the  eddying  current  burbled  and  sank  were 
full  of  sullen  sound  and  darkness.  In  dry  weather  and 
daylight  we  might  have  explored  them ;  as  it  was,  none 
of  our  party  ventured  in.  Night  was  coming  on ;  in 
the  twilight  the  vicinity  looked  all  that  its  name  im- 
plies. It  is  called  Sitio  del  Infierno,  to  translate  which 
would  be  plain  profanity.  As  we  gazed  in  silence 
upon  that  curious  locahty  there  descended  upon  us, 
although  reason  protested,  primitive  fear  of  a  trap,  — 
of  a  corner,  of  being  brought  to  bay.  I  think  none  of 
us,  from  Lieutenant  Shelley  in  command  down  to  the 
faithful  strikers  who  brought  up  the  rear,  regretted 
departing  from  that  most  uncanny  place.  We  sought  a 
hilltop,  and  there,  the  rain  having  considerately  ceased 
to  fall,  we  waited  until  the  lights  of  Pinar,  glimmering 
to  our  relief,  showed  us  in  what  direction  to  make  our 
way  homeward,  down  gulches,  beside  a  river  in  whose 
bed  the  torrent  rolled  bowlders  with  a  sullen  rumble  and 
a  grating  of  rock  on  rock  which  warned  us  not  to  ford,  — 
through  tobacco  beds,  and,  happily,  into  the  highway 
that  conducted  us  eventually  into  the  city  well  toward 
twelve  o'clock  at  night. 

Like  this  weird  valley  there  are  many  others,  larger 
and  smaller,  all  through  the  Organo  Range.  What 
tillable  land  there  is  iii  them  is  always  very  fertile,  and, 
from  San  Diego  de  los  Banos  westward,  is  eagerly  seized 
upon  by  vegueros  (tobacco  growers)  who  refer  to  their 
estates  when  situated  in  such  inaccessible,  isolated 
spots  as  that  described,  as  ^^holes  in  the  hills,''  than 
which  no  description  could  be  more  accurate.  They 
measure  their  size,  not  by  extent  of  ground  or  yield, 


226  CUBA 

but  by  labor  required ;  i.e.  there  are  ^^two  man  holes  in 
the  hills/ ^  and  ^^six  man'^  and  ''twelve  man  holes/' 

Now  and  then  areas  of  hillside  in  the  Organos  which 
at  first  glance  seem  virgin  wilderness,  show  to  the  more 
observant  eye  unmistakable  signs  of  former  cultivation  : 
a  patch  of  bananas,  perhaps,  or  coffee  trees  grown  gaunt 
and  unfruitful  in  their  struggle  against  encroaching  bush. 
Little  enough  information,  usually,  is  to  be  gained  con- 
cerning their  predecessors  from  the  families  who  inhabit 
the  shacks  of  palm  board  and  palm  leaf  to  be  found  in 
clearings,  at  no  great  distance,  sometimes,  from  piles  of 
crumbling  brick  and  mortar,  almost  lost  in  thicket, 
which  are  the  ruins  of  pleasant  villas  destroyed,  some  of 
them,  only  as  late  as  1896.  Recent  as  their  ruin  is,  their 
history  is  already  lost  to  their  immediate  neighborhood. 
So  little  time  need  elapse  in  this  climate  and  among  these 
people  to  obliterate  not  only  the  habitations,  but  the 
memory  of  men  who  lived,  labored,  and  became,  in  the 
particular  instances  I  have  in  mind,  world-famous  for 
their  work  done  here  in  the  Organos. 

I  was  fortunate  enough  to  make,  on  one  occasion,  an 
excursion  on  horseback  from  the  town  of  Taco  Taco 
into  the  hills  opposite.  ^^ Before  the  war''  Taco  Taco 
was  but  the  railway  station  for  Santa  Cruz  de  los  Pinos, 
situated  two  kilometers  north  of  it.  To-day,  Taco  Taco 
is  a  village,  a  shipping  point  of  some  importance  ;  Santa 
Cruz  is  debris,  —  blackened  walls,  remnants  of  broken 
sidewalks,  —  mere  litter  marking  the  site  of  the  place 
Maceo  burned  when  he  devastated  Pinar  del  Rio  Prov- 
ince during  ''the  Invasion"  of  1895-1898. 

Beyond  Mr.  Benton  Webster's  estate,  where  fruits  and 
flowers  he  has  transplanted  from  his  California  home 
grow  in  profusion,  the  particular  road  over  which  Mr. 
Laughlin  led  me  that  August  day  becomes  a  trail,  per- 


THE    LAND  227 

severing  to  Mr.  Bonomi's  camp.  From  that  point  on- 
ward we  found  a  path  into  the  Santa  Cruz  canon,  where 
the  clear  creek  of  that  name  comes  down  over  the  pohshed 
blue  limestone  bowlders  of  its  rough  bed.  Wild  fruit 
trees  and  flowering  shrubs  cast  lacy  shadows  on  pools 
where  little  fishes  sport.  Three  or  four  springs  of  clean, 
wholesome  water  spout  forcefully  from  the  west  wall  of 
the  gorge  at  no  great  distance  from  its  debouchment. 
The  place  seems  to  be  primeval  wilderness ;  each  visitor 
may  imagine  himself  the  first  Caucasian  on  the  scene. 
But  beyond  the  ford,  above  Bonomi^s,  the  path,  turning 
to  skirt  the  foothill,  threads  a  jungle  of  aroma  trees; 
their  scraggly  trunks  and  branches  support  a  canopy 
of  leaves  interlaced,  all  hung,  when  we  rode  under,  with 
tassels  of  purple  and  gold,  —  the  blossoms.  There, 
dank  in  the  shadow  of  the  aroma^  moss-grown  and  crum- 
bling, are  brick  steps  in  a  wide  flight  through  a  preten- 
tious gateway.  A  little  beyond  are  the  ruins  of  an  ex- 
tensive villa,  which  had  a  formal  garden,  fountains,  and 
an  aviary ;  at  a  further  distance,  the  wreckage  of  slave 
quarters,  a  concrete  circle  where  coffee  was  dried,  and 
then  a  good  mile  of  palm  trees  in  double  row,  marking  an 
entrance  avenue.  Only  the  trunks  of  the  palms  in  their 
regular  order,  showing  white  in  the  green  gloom  of  the 
surrounding  forest,  bear  witness  now  to  the  former 
beauty  of  that  stately  approach.  The  very  trail  seems 
here  to  disappear,  buried  under  vegetation. 

This  is  all  that  remains  of  Villa  Rangel,  built  for  his 
residence  by  Don  Francisco  Adolfo  Sauvalle,  Cuba's 
first  and  still  her  foremost  botanist,  who,  by  the  way,  was 
born  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  1807.  His  was  a 
French  family,  renowned,  before  his  advent,  for  warlike 
rather  than  scientific  achievement.  He  was  educated  at 
Rouen,  in  Normandy ;  he  arrived  in  Cuba  in  1827.     He 


228  .  CUBA 

was  an  active  citizen  in  Regla  and  a  coffee  planter  at 
Rangel.  By  1855  he  was  recognized  abroad  as  a  botan- 
ist worthy  to  wear  the  honors  foreign  societies  bestowed ; 
twelve  years  later  he  received  some  meed  of  apprecia- 
tion in  his  own  land.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Economic 
Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country,  and  of  the  Academy 
of  Sciences,  in  which  body  he  held  high  office  from  1874 
until  death  overtook  him  at  his  writing  table  in  Regla, 
on  February  1,  1879.  Sauvalle  contributed  a  very 
large  number  of  treatises  to  the  scientific  literature  of 
Cuba.  The  one  work  which  immortalized  him,  how- 
ever, is  his  Flora  Cubana,  prepared  in  collaboration  with 
the  noted  American  botanist,  Charles  Wright.  The 
Sauvalle  Herbarium  of  six  thousand  specimens  belongs 
to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  had  allowed  it  to  go 
pretty  well  to  pieces  when  Prof.  C.  F.  Baker,  then  of 
the  staff  of  the  Government  Experiment  Station  at 
Santiago  de  las  Vegas,  rescued  it,  fumigated  it,  and  re- 
stored it  to  as  good  condition  as  was  possible.  The  col- 
lection contains  results  of  work  done  by  Sauvalle  him- 
self, by  Jose  Blain,  his  relative  and  neighbor,  and  by 
Charles  Wright.  It  includes  several  original  specimens 
of  new  species  to  which  are  attached  Wright's  manu- 
script notes.  In  some  instances  the  specimens,  which, 
by  the  way,  are  again  in  jeopardy  of  destruction,  are 
the  only  ones  in  existence,  for  part  of  Wright's  col- 
lection was  lost  in  transportation. 

While  Sauvalle  lived,  Rangel  was  the  resort  of  such 
men  as  the  Count  de  Morelet,  to  whom  Sr.  Blain 
presented  a  valuable  collection  of  land  moUusks,  and 
Felipe  Poey,  Dr.  D.  Juan  Gundlach,  a  German  so 
long  a  resident  of  Cuba  he  came  to  be  considered  as 
Cuban  as  Poey  was,  together  with  other  visitors  of  less 
renown. 


THE   LAND  229 

Carlos  Echevarria,  however,  who  Uves  yet,  in  a 
hohio  at  Aspiro  close  by,  is  not  aware  that  Sauvalle 
was  other  than  Don  Francisco,  his  friend  and  a  kind 
master.  It  was  he  who  told  us  as  we  sat  in  his  wretched 
hut  that  afternoon  while  the  rain  came  down  musically 
on  myriad  leaves  of  trees  and  shrubs  around,  all  rustling 
to  its  touch,  of  the  days  when  the  coffee  plantation, 
up  yonder  on  the  mountainside,  ^'gave  results.'^  Then 
Don  Francisco  kept  twenty-eight  slaves,  mostly  black 
field  hands ;  only  three  of  them  were  chinos  (not  Chi- 
nese, but  mulattoes),  and  these  were  skilled  laborers. 
They  built  the  villa,  and  themselves  put  on  the  prodig- 
ious number  of  tiles  its  roof  required.  This  was  forty, 
maybe  fifty,  maybe  more  years  ago ;  Carlos  is  indefi- 
nite on  this  point.  The  house  was  completely  fur- 
nished; ^Hhere  was  even  a  billiard  room.^^  Thither, 
at  Christmas  time  especially,  the  owner  came  with 
gay  parties  whose  pleasure  it  was  to  picnic  high  in  the 
hills.  Presently,  however,  these  parties  came  no 
more ;  it  was  because  the  coffee  ^^failed  to  give  results.'' 
The  house  stood  closed.  Sauvalle  remained  in  Regla. 
Carlos  kept  the  key,  opening  the  villa  only  now  and 
then  to  friends  Don  Francisco  sent  up,  or  friends  of 
Don  Jose  Blain,  whose  own  estate.  El  Retiro,  near  by, 
fared  no  better  than  Rangel.  These  visitors  —  and 
Carlos  smiles  —  hunted  handsome  spiders  and  plants  in 
the  wildwood,  and  at  night  sipped  the  good  wine  he, 
the  caretaker,  brought  forth  from  Don  Francisco's 
store  of  prized  beverages.  Suddenly,  once,  the  place 
took  on  new  life.  Expensive  furniture  to  replace  the 
old  came  out  from  Havana;  the  freight  alone  on  it 
amounted  to  $700,  as  Carlos  clearly  recalls.  Every- 
thing was  put  in  readiness,  and  the  old  master's  son  and 
his  bride  came  to  Rangel  to  reside,  —  for  less  than  a 


230  CUBA 

year.  They  returned  to  Havana.  Time  passed.  The 
coffee  trees  were  entirely  abandoned.  The  slaves, 
declared  free,  had  long  since  left  their  quarters.  The 
fountain  ceased  to  play,  though  at  its  source  of  supply 
the  springs  in  Santa  Cruz  canon  still  flowed  vigorously. 
From  Havana  the  widow  of  Sauvalle  wrote,  ordering 
the  house  reroofed.  Rain  was  leaking  in,  and  she 
would  preserve  even  the  tarnished  furniture  in  memory 
of  happier  days,  when  the  coffee  '^gave  results.^' 
Carlos,  the  caretaker  for  twenty-eight  years  (under  no 
contract,  he  proudly  adds,  but  because  of  confidence 
between  him  and  Don  Francisco),  argued,  with  the 
boldness  of  a  faithful  retainer,  that  the  sum  required 
for  the  work  was  more  than  should  be  spent  upon  it. 
Piece  by  piece  the  ruining  furniture  was  sold  and  carried 
away.  When  Maceo  swept  the  plain  below  with  torch 
and  machete^  the  empty  shell  of  Sauvalle's  old  home 
burned,  too.  With  the  smoke  seems  to  have  dissi- 
pated all  comprehension  thereabouts  of  what  the  man 
was;  only  in  the  heart  of  Carlos  the  caretaker,  his 
memory  lingers  as  that  of  a  good  master.  Since  then 
the  aroma  which,  they  say,  once  kept  primly  to  the 
confines  of  the  formal  garden,  has  had  its  way  over 
the  villa  site ;  it  is  tying  down  the  wreckage  under  a 
snarl  of  knotted  roots. 

Midway  down  the  avenue  of  palm  trees  as  we  en- 
deavored to  make  our  way  out,  our  trail  lost  itself 
utterly  in  bush.  We  could  hear  the  steady  strokes  of 
a.  machete  at  work,  clearing,  near  at  hand.  We  hallooed, 
and  a  countryman,  half  naked,  wet  with  sweat  and 
rain,  as  formidable  a  desperado,  in  every  detail  of  ap- 
pearance, at  least,  as  ever  inhabited  a  palenque,  hacked 
his  way  out  of  the  bushes  and  greeted  us.  We  were, 
he  said,  within  a  biscuit^s  toss  of  the  residence  of  Ameri- 


THE    LAND  231 

cans,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  King.  The  fellow  led  us  through 
the  undergrowth  to  the  edge  of  their  clearing,  cutting 
bushes,  boughs,  and  small  trees  from  before  our  horses, 
with  free  and  easy  swing  of  the  blade  he  flourished. 
It  developed  that  he  was  their  very  tame  and  faithful 
hired  man.  Here  we  were  invited  to  ^^ breakfast,''  — 
that  is,  to  partake  of  the  noon  meal,  —  a  courtesy 
we  accepted  with  alacrity.  Overlooking  the  country- 
side from  the  porch  of  their  temporary  residence,  the 
Kings  explained  their  plans  for  the  future,  which  were 
nothing  less  than  to  create  for  themselves  there  a 
home  on  the  order  of  Sauvalle's,  which,  by  the  way,  they 
supposed  to  have  been  built  much  earlier  than  it  was. 
It  is  a  very  common  error  to  ascribe  to  ruins  like 
it  an  antiquity  they  do  not  possess.  A  frequent  disil- 
lusionment American  settlers  in  western  Cuba  —  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  island,  too,  for  that  matter  — 
suffer,  follows  when,  after  turning  up  in  plowing 
some  broken  dish  or  old  knife,  or,  perhaps,  uncovering 
a  heap  of  disintegrating  bricks  and  shattered  tiles,  they 
find  on  inquiry  addressed  to  the  nearest  ^^  oldest  inhabit- 
ant'' that  the  land  they  have  just  purchased  as 
^^ virgin  soil"  was,  even  within  the  previous  twenty 
years,  worked  by  others.  No  sooner  is  any  plot  of 
cultivated  ground  abandoned,  in  Cuba,  than  Nature 
busies  herself  successfully  in  removing  or  hiding  under 
vegetation  and  its  mold  every  vestige  of  man's  im- 
pertinent alteration  of  her  original  design.  In  five 
years  she  will  make  a  wrecked  house  look  as  though 
Columbus  might  have  sojourned  there;  in  ten  years 
she  will  so  disguise  an  abandoned  canefield  that  any 
active  land  company  can  sell  it  —  to  Americans  — 
as  first-class  savannah,  suitable  for  citrus  fruit,  un- 
touched  by   cultivation   since   the   Indians   the   First 


232  CUBA 

Admiral  scared  off  it  dropped  their  crooked  plow- 
sticks  and  ran  ! 

From  the  Kings'  we  rode  homeward,  toward  Taco 
Taco.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  wet,  bedraggled,  but, 
thanks  to  the  soaking,  cool  and  unsunburned  even  in 
August,  we  made  bold  to  pass  through  the  citrus  fruit 
groves  of  Orr  Brothers,  Scotchmen,  who  have  had  the 
money  and  the  patience  to  develop  here  trees  from 
which  last  March  they  sent  in  the  handsomest  oranges 
on  exhibit  at  the  Fourth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Cuban 
National  Horticultural  Society.  We  met  these  gentle- 
men —  they  are  twins,  by  the  way  —  on  one  of  their 
avenues :  they  were  mounted  on  bay  horses  that 
matched,  they  wore  raincoats  of  identical  cut,  with 
caps  alike,  and,  having  drawn  up  beside  us,  regarding 
us  with  a  mild  astonishment,  they  opened  their  mouths 
with  one  accord,  and  both  together,  with  the  very  same 
inflection  and  accent,  chorused  cheerfully:  '^ Won't 
you  have  tea?''  We  had  tea,  in  a  tiny  living  hall 
which  proclaimed  itself  through  all  the  bachelor  dis- 
order to  be  the  habitat  of  gentlemen.  One  brother  dis- 
coursed on  the  cost  of  a  grove  and  fertilizer,  while  the 
other,  consulting  a  small  notebook  and  a  large  account 
book,  reenf orced  his  every  statement  with  brief  mention 
of  pounds  and  pence. 

In  Pinar  del  Rio  Province,  as  in  the  greater  part  of 
all  Cuba,  the  arrangement  of  the  water  courses  is  ex- 
ceedingly simple.  The  divide  is  the  crest  —  when 
the  range  is  composite,  the  southern  crest  —  of  the 
mountains.  From  their  sources  in  the  hills  the  streams 
make  straightaway  for  the  sea.  Those  flowing  north- 
ward pour  through  cafions  and  gulches,  swiftly,  seek- 
ing the  ocean  by  no  devious  route.  Those  that  jour- 
ney southward  do  not  always  reach  their  destination, 


THE    LAND  233 

for  the  plains  they  cross  are  underlaid  with  porous 
limestones  through  which  not  only  rain  water  disap- 
pears rapidly,  to  arise,  after  flowing  long  distances 
underground,  in  bold  springs,  but  whole  rivers  sink 
out  of  sight !  Some  vanish  gradually,  merely  ^^  petering 
out,^'  to  the  exasperation  of  helpless  residents  along 
what  ought  to  be  their  courses.  Others  make  their  exit 
more  picturesquely,  gurgling  into  yawning  caverns. 
Some  pass  under  mountains,  welling  forth  on  the  other 
side  of  great  ridges.  Coursing  along  underground  these 
buried  rivers  provide  the  province  plentifully  with 
springs  of  fresh,  clean  water.  Large  areas  entirely  de- 
void of  running  streams  are,  nevertheless,  green  the 
year  around,  roots  of  vegetation  there  seeming  to  reach 
water  just  below  the  surface.  With  the  exception  of 
few  localities,  wells  dug  short  distances  give  satisfac- 
tory results.  Drilled  wells  touch  exhaustless  supplies. 
A  piedmont  plain  entirely  surrounds  the  Organos. 
North  of  these  mountains  it  exists,  nowadays,  more  in 
the  eye  of  geologists  than  in  reality.  Here  the  low- 
land belt  is  much  narrower  than  it  is  on  the  south, 
and  elevated.  It  does  not  have  a  regular  slope  to  sea 
level,  but  is  at  least  two  hundred  feet  high  near  the 
coast.  It  would  appear  that  the  northern  edge  of  the 
island,  here  in  the  west,  was  in  some  past  era  elevated 
about  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  more  than  the 
southern  edge.  The  northward-flowing  streams  lowered 
their  channels  as  the  land  rose,  so  that  the  country 
north  of  the  range  is  now  deeply  dissected ;  only  the 
flat  tops  of  hills,  in  fact,  indicate  the  position  and 
extent  of  the  piedmont  plain,  in  this  locality.  South 
of  the  mountains,  however,  there  is  a  plain  in  fact, 
with  a  maximum  breadth,  between  the  Organos  and  the 
Caribbean,  of  twenty  miles.     It  ascends  gradually  from 


234  CUBA 

ocean  level  to  the  base  of  the  hills  at  the  rate  of  seven  or 
eight  feet  to  the  mile.  Its  seaward  portion  is  extremely 
flat,  deserted,  they  say,  by  all  save  herds  of  cattle 
turned  out  there,  to  fatten,  if  they  can,  for  market. 
Their  keepers  exist,  sheltered  somewhat  in  isolated 
huts  or  scarcely  more  cheerful  groupings  of  these, 
called  rancherias,  which,  being  translated,  is  less  than 
hamlet.  As  the  Organos  are  approached,  this  southern 
plain  becomes  more  undulating.  The  beds  of  its 
streams  he  deeper,  between  banks  overhung  with  palms, 
bamboo,  and  indigenous  fruit  trees. 

It  is  on  the  plains,  north  and  south  of  the  moun- 
tains, that  the  considerable  towns  of  Pinar  del  Rio 
Province  stand.  The  largest  of  them  are  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Organos,  all  strung  along  the  tracks  of  the 
Western  Railway  like  colored  beads  on  a  silver  thread. 
It  seems  to  me  one  of  history's  gentle  ironies  that  this 
railroadj  the  greatest  single  factor  in  the  development 
and  sustained  prosperity  of  Pinar  del  Rio  Province, 
should  be  owned  and  operated  by  English.  Now,  to 
be  sure,  the  word  ^  ^  English 'V  means  capital,  invest- 
ment, and,  especially  in  the  slang  of  Cuba,  it  means 
creditors,  but  there  was  a  time,  —  as  late  as  hardly 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  —  when,  particularly 
to  Pinar  del  Rio  Province,  it  meant  pirate,  marauder, 
enemy,  in  brief,  to  life  and  property.  When  Diego 
Managuaco  killed  'Hhe  enemies''  by  sixes  and  dozens, 
according  to  legends  of  his  prowess,  one  understands 
that  they  were  English  whom  he  slaughtered.  When 
the  Corderos,  who  resided  on  the  slopes  of  Cacarajicaras, 
went  down  to  the  coast  and  made  '^ihe  enemies'' 
respect  the  north  shore  '^from  Manimai  to  Verracos" 
(wherever  those  limits  of  their  patrol  may  be  !)  they 
were  English  corsairs  who  were  intimidated.     To-day, 


1 

3 

1  Si 

1^ 

^^^B 

!-'■  s' 

■ 

i|  1      - 

1  ^^       «■■> 

^^^^^H 

'"^^B 

£     't  ■ 

1 

THE    LAND  235 

oddly  enough,  none  are  so  interested  in  the  welfare  and 
further  development  of  western  Cuba  as  the  English, 
especially  those  who  finance  and  manage  the  Western 
Railway.  The  gentleman  who,  were  it  organized  as 
an  American  company  is,  would  be  called  its  president 
instead  of  chairman  of  the  board  of  directors,  was 
adopted  some  years  ago  by  Pinar  del  Rio  City  as  a 
^^ favorite  son.''  The  honor  was  offered  in  evidence  of 
the  high  esteem  in  which  the  territory  it  serves  holds 
the  Western  Railway.  The  company's  popularity 
is  the  more  to  its  credit  because  its  relation  to  the 
region  is  such  as  might  induce  a  concern  of  smaller 
caliber  to  seek  undue  profits  in  unpleasant  policies. 
Pinar  del  Rio  is,  to  be  quite  frank,  the  Western's 
province.  No  neater  monopoly  was  ever  laid  off  for  a 
fortunate  corporation  than  western  Cuba  (surrounded 
by  shallows  and  without  good  ports,  or,  until  very 
lately,  passable  roads)  constitutes  for  this  railroad, 
with  its  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  miles  of  track 
connecting  famous  and  prolific  tobacco  districts  with 
Havana,  back  from  which  city,  into  the  country,  in 
exchange  for  trainloads  of  leaf,  it  carries  trainloads  of 
general  merchandise,  and,  especially,  foodstuffs. 

Pinar  del  Rio  is  engrossed  in  tobacco  culture :  there 
is  no  secondary  crop.  In  his  dooryard  the  veguero 
(tobacco  grower)  permits  a  few  boniatos  (a  variety  of 
sweet  potato),  some  yuca  and  malanga  (indigenous 
crops,  roots  of  which  he  deems  edible),  and,  perhaps, 
a  little  rice,  along  with  a  clump  of  ragged  bananas, 
to  survive  neglect,  if  they  can.  What  energy  he  sees 
fit  to  expend  on  agriculture  is  bestowed  on  his  tobacco 
field.  Tobacco  is,  unfortunately,  a  precarious  crop, 
and  its  market  is  unstable.  Therefore  it  happens 
every  now  and  again  that,  weather  or  prices  failing, 


236  CUBA 

the  people  of  Pinar  are  reduced  to  starvation,  an  un- 
pleasant condition  against  which  repeated  bitter  expe- 
riences have  not  availed  to  teach  them  to  guard  by  grow- 
ing minor  crops  for  their  sustenance.  When  they  have 
a  tobacco  crop  and  can  sell  it,  they  buy  imported  pro- 
visions hauled  out  over  the  Western ;  when  they  have 
not,  they  demand  charity,  and  the  government  assists 
in  movement  to  mitigate  ^^ famine  in  Vuelta  Abajo^'  ! 

The  pinareno  is  not,  however,  without  excuse  in  this 
shortsightedness,  in  which  he  has  the  company  not  only 
of  other  natives  and  Spaniards,  but  also  of  American 
and  Canadian  settlers  throughout  the  island  as  well. 
More  than  half  of  Cuba's  purchases  abroad  are  food  and 
clothing.  The  former  item  was  equivalent  to  35.7  per 
cent  of  the  republic's  importations  in  the  year  1907-1908 
(latest  available  treasury  report),  details  as  follow: 
meats,  8.9  per  cent;  fish,  1.3  per  cent;  cereals  and 
fruits,  12.4  per  cent ;  vegetables,  3.9  per  cent ;  oils 
and  drinks,  3.3  per  cent ;  milk  products,  2.2  per  cent ; 
miscellaneous,  3.7  per  cent.  A  very  large  proportion 
of  this  might  very  readily  have  been  produced  within 
the  island,  —  especially  the  pork,  eggs,  chickens,  beans, 
and,  possibly,  even  the  rice;  for  each  of  these  items 
millions  of  dollars  are  expended  annually  abroad. 
Students  of  economics  maintain  that  Cuba  must  neces- 
sarily remain  a  two-crop  country  (sugar  and  tobacco), 
but  to  the  superficial  observer  it  would  seem  logical 
for  her  to  produce,  if  not  for  exportation,  at  least  for  her 
own  consumption,  a  few  of  those  articles  to  home- 
growing  of  which  every  condition  is  favorable  (like  the 
pork,  eggs,  beans,  just  mentioned),  that  now  she  gets 
from  her  neighbors  at  desperate  cost  to  the  ultimate 
consumer.  Possibilities  in  this  direction  merit  at 
least  the  consideration  of  those  whose  narrow  profits 


THE    LAND  237 

from  either  sugar  or  tobacco  are  quite  obliterated 
time  and  again  by  the  high  price  of  Uving  off  Mexican 
beans,  Indian  rice,  Argentine  jerked  beef,  and  cold- 
storage  eggs  (from  Heaven  knows  where  !) .  Especially 
does  this  phase  of  the  situation  in  Cuba  invite  the  atten- 
tion of  incoming  settlers,  —  Americans  and  Canadians, 
—  who,  however,  usually  arrive  with  an  irremediable 
bent  toward  expensive  crops,  the  market  for  which  is 
distant,  costly  to  reach,  and  utterly  beyond  their  con- 
trol. 


CHAPTER  XI 

WEST    BY    RAIL 

Towns  of  Pinar 

The  towns  of  western  Cuba  are  not,  I  think,  par- 
ticularly interesting ;  or  it  may  be  that  I  have  lived 
here  too  long  to  find  attractive  their  unpaved  streets, 
littered  with  stones  half  buried  in  dust  in  the  dry 
season,  and  flooded  over  with  mud  in  the  wet.  The 
colors  of  their  gaudily  painted  houses  please  me  still, 
though  in  degree  much  modified  from  earliest  enthu- 
siasm, entertained  when  I  had  not  learned  by  too 
personal  experience  what  dirt  and  discomfort  their 
pretty  red-tiled  roofs  shut  in  !  The  little  naked  babies, 
—  black,  brown,  and  yellow  shading  toward  white,  — 
who  stand  by  the  cactus  hedges,  in  the  village  outskirts, 
I  no  longer  see  at  all,  unless  some  half-scandalized 
tourist  be  at  hand  to  call  my  attention  to  a  sight  on 
which  I,  too,  wasted  my  kodak  films  and  my  protesta- 
tions, ten  years  ago.  Ragamuffins  at  the  depots  who 
demand  ^^one  cenf  are  to  me  only  worthless  beggars; 
they  are  not  cold  or  hungry,  and  they  will  not  work, 
but  prefer  to  parade  instead  a  poverty  usually  fictitious, 
assumed,  very  frequently,  only  in  the  presence  of  an 
American.  I  have  seen  well-clad  children  (especially 
in  Havana)  whose  every  garment  bespoke  a  home  of 
more  than  average  circumstances,  stop  their  play,  at 
sight  of  a  tourist,  twist  their  bodies  into  attitudes,  put 

238 


WEST    BY    BAIL  239 

on  an  expression  of  cajoling  woe,  and  extend  a  hand 
for  alms.  I  have  told  them,  in  impolite  Spanish,  to 
remove  themselves  to  a  distance,  and  seen  them  then, 
at  that  evidence  of  my  residence  here,  doff  their  hy- 
pocrisy in  a  flash,  sometimes  with  chagrined  laughter, 
oftener  in  the  silence  of  disappointment,  but  rarely, 
I  have  observed,  in  shame  that  they  are  properly  esti- 
mated. The  whine  of  ^^  Gimme  one  cent^'  is,  to  my 
notion,  the  expression  of  an  appreciation,  general  here, 
of  the  fact  that  we  Americans,  individually  and  na- 
tionally, are  ^^easy  marks.''  For  my  part,  I  resent 
the  reputation,  though  I  could,  I  regret  to  state,  sum- 
mon several  husky  impostors  in  evidence  that  I  did  my 
share,  in  greener  years,  to  uphold  it. 

It  is  a  relief  to  the  very  soul  to  look  beyond  the  towns 
and  the  people  in  them,  into  the  country  itself,  which 
is,  after  all,  Cuba.  At  no  hour  unlovely,  it  is  espe- 
cially beautiful  in  the  early  morning,  even  as  late  as 
seven  o'clock,  when  the  Western  Railway  train  pulls 
out  of  Cristina,  into  the  open,  as  the  sun  comes  up 
over  Atares,  rising  above  the  hills  that  lie  around 
Guanabacoa  and  Luyano.  This  is  the  time  of  the  day 
when  the  plains  and  the  shallow  valleys,  the  distant 
dim  hills,  the  cultivated  fields,  the  fallows  and  grass- 
matted  untamed  stretches  between  them,  are  green, 
sparkling  with  dew,  gemmed  with  morning  glories  like 
sapphires  and  amethysts,  enlivened  with  coralillo 
(exquisite  coral  creeper)  and  white-flecked  with  agui- 
naldo  blossoms,  the  pearls  of  the  posy  jewels.  Solitary 
royal  palms  cast  long  slim  shadows,  in  the  early  light ; 
where  they  stand  in  groves  their  blanched  boles  form 
an  indistinct  gray  blur.  In  low  places  mists  linger, 
drifting,  opalescent,  disappearing  imperceptibly  as  day 
brightens. 


240  CUBA 

From  Guira  onward  evidences  of  man's  industry 
interest  the  traveler,  rather  more  than  the  natural 
beauties  and  oddities  of  the  scenery.  He  has  entered 
the  district  where  partido  tobacco  is  produced  at  its 
best.  White  cheesecloth  shelters,  stretched  taut  above 
.acres  of  valuable  plants,  are  high  lights  in  the  picture, 
from  this  point  westward.  Here  and  there  are  brown- 
thatched,  peaked-roofed  tobacco  barns.  At  Alquizar 
one  sees  through  the  green  of  surrounding  shrubbery 
the  plantation  house  and  the  red  outbuildings  of  the 
famous  Luis  Marx  estates. 

One  by  one  the  stations  file  by.  Artemisa  was  for- 
merly the  center  of  the  famous  Spanish  trocha,  a  forti- 
fied trench  across  the  island  from  Mariel,  on  the  north 
shore,  to  Majana,  on  the  south,  intended  to  hamper 
the  action  of  Cuban  revolutionists,  who,  nevertheless, 
crossed  it  time  and  again  without  apparent  difficulty. 
The  town  has  since  acquired  enviable  reputation  as  the 
center  of  one  of  the  most  productive  fruit-growing  and 
farming  districts  in  the  island.  Millions  of  crates  of 
pineapples  are  shipped  from  here  annually  for  the 
markets  of  the  United  _^tates.  Candelaria  and  San 
Cristobal  are  ThecenEers  of  districts  which  produce 
coffee ;  in  the  sierras  to  the  north  are  lands  admirably 
suited  to  this  crop,  and  here,  when  formerly  the  indus- 
try was  profitable,  there  were  extensive  plantings,  later 
abandoned,  but  now  reviving  under  the  skilled  care  of 
those  who  are  reestablishing  the  culture,  conditions 
having  become  favorable  once  more.  Between  San 
Cristobal  and  Taco  Taco  the  railway  line  crosses  wide 
savannas,  which,  ^'  before  the  war,''  afforded  pasture 
to  large  herds  of  cattle,  stock-raising  being  then  one  of 
the  principal  industries  of  the  neighborhood.  Los 
Palacios    has    been  rebuilt    since    its    destruction    by 


B|^if*. 

J- 

^'        ^:-.   ,:;,...■■■           :5*»->-"                                                          ...::.,;,.,:. v^?l 

Photograph  Tjy  American  Photo  Company 

Raja  Yoga  Academy,  Pinar  del  Rio 


I'hatoijruph  by  Aitn.rUau  I'hoiu  C'c 

Hotel  Ricardo,  Pinar  del  Rio 


WEST    BY    RAIL  241 

Maceo,  in  1895-1896.  Shortly  beyond  Paso  Real  the 
country  undergoes  an  abrupt  change.  Its  coloring 
dulls  somewhat,  and  in  place  of  the  royal  palm  appears 
a  peculiar  ^^  bottle  palm/'  oddly  swollen  halfway  up 
the  trunk,  ending  in  an  unkempt  tuft  of  foliage.  Here, 
too,  one  first  notices  thin  and  spindling  pine  trees,  the 
aftergrowth,  possibly,  of  considerable  pine  forests, 
cleared  out  of  here,  they  say,  by  movable  sawmills, 
especially  in  1861-1865,  when  civil  war  paralyzed  the 
lumbering  business  of  the  southern  United  States.  This 
is  obviously  a  less  fertile  region  —  at  least  in  that  part 
the  railway  traverses  —  than  others  passed  or  that 
into  which  it  emerges  on  approaching  Pinar  del  Rio 
City,  —  a  typical  .provincial  capital,  with  wide  white 
country  roads  entering  to  form  its  principal  avenues, 
gaily  colored  low-built  houses,  a  plaza,  hotels,  clubs, 
a  parish  church  (dating  from  1764),  schools,  and  all 
the  leisurely  life  of  a  Cuban  inland  town.  Commer- 
cially, the  city  is  lively,  especially  in  the  season  when 
it  is  the  center  for  negotiations  between  growers  and 
buyers  of  tobacco. 

At  Consolacion  (of  which  town  the  passenger  en  route 
sees  only  the  railway  station)  he  entered  the  sacred 
precincts  of  ^'the  genuine  Vuelta  Abajo,''  the  most 
famous  tobacco  district  on  earth,  limits  of  which 
are  variously  defined,  but  usually  conceded  to  embrace 
about  all  Cuba  west  of  Consolacion.  The  very  center 
of  the  region  is  just  beyond  Pinar  del  Rio  City,  at  San 
Juan  y  Martinez  and  San  Luis,  where  lowland  tobacco 
classified  as  ^^best  of  the  best''  is  grown,  —  by  and  for 
the  American  trust.  The  vicinity  is,  to  my  remem- 
brance, the  most  beautiful,  as  well  as  the  most  instruc- 
tive, in  all  the  west.  There  are  swelling  hills  and  tiny 
valleys  dimpling  between,  over  which  troop  the  royal 


242  CUBA 

palms  that  never  weary  in  their  changing  grace ;  hills 
are  to  the  north,  cloud-crowned  and  iridescent ;  close 
at  hand,  countless  red  tobacco  barns,  and  Cuban  bohios 
(shacks)  walled  with  palm  board  and  thatched  with 
leaves ;  in  pastures  between  tobacco  fields  the  cattle 
add  a  touch  of  quiet  contentment,  and,  over  all,  when 
first  we  saw  it,  there  rested  the  marvelous  coloring  of 
such  a  sunset  as  I  have  seldom  seen,  —  a  very  riot 
and  revel  of  pastel  tints,  mixed,  it  seemed  that  even- 
ing, with  a  living  liquid  gold. 

Guane,  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  miles  from 
Havana,  is  the  present  terminus  of  the  Western  Rail- 
way, which  has  in  project,  however,  building  farther 
west  and  south,  to  Remates.  Guane  is  the  oldest 
town  in  all  the  west  country ;  it  sits  high  and  dry  on  a 
ridge  of  land  above  the  second  largest  river  in  Cuba, 
the  Cuyaguateje,  a  stream  which  varies  in  volume  with 
the  season  from  a  rivulet  to  a  raging  torrent. 

Beyond  Guane,  on  lands  first  hilly,  then  rolling, 
and  finally  flat,  as  the  sea  is  approached  on  north  and 
south  and  west,  there  are  ancient  and  prosperous  com- 
munities, —  around  Mantua,  Montezuelo,  Las  Marti- 
nas,  and  Remates,  —  where  very  famous  tobacco  is 
grown.  Here,  too,  lying  in  a  circle  almost  embracing 
the  railway  station  of  Mendoza  (one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  miles  from  Havana)  within  its  circumference  and 
quite  touching  the  sandy  beach,  twenty-five  miles 
away,  —  the  same  on  which  my  mother  and  I  landed, 
from  the  north  coast  boat,  —  is  a  tract  of  land  on  which 
Canadians  especially  have  been  induced  to  settle. 

This  colony  has  been  more  frequently  and  more 
openly  condemned,  by  disheartened  settlers  and  inves- 
tigating agents  of  the  Canadian  and  British  govern- 
ments, than  any  other  in  Cuba,  despite  the  fact  that 


JVEST    BY   BAIL  243 

not  a  few  more  have  equal  if  not  greater  claims  to 
attention.  The  land  is,  as  a  glance  at  the  map  shows 
plainly,  distant  from  its  center  of  supply,  Havana, 
which  is  also  its  only  present  port  of  shipment.  I  do 
not  know  what  misleading  or  untrue  statements  con- 
cerning boat  service,  dockage  facilities,  the  exact  loca- 
tion and  present  condition  of  government  roads  between 
the  property  and  Havana,  nor  what  glowing  exaggera- 
tions of  ^^big,  sure  profits,^'  were  laid  before  those  who 
have  become  investors  there.  Certainly,  the  proposals 
must  have  been  cleverly  put,  for  one  does  not  frequently 
encounter  anywhere  better  or  more  intelligent  people 
than  those  who  have  come,  in  person,  to  cultivate 
their  purchases. 

I  remember  Ocean  Beach  kindly,  —  a  little  frontier 
town,  situated  close  to  an  inviting  stretch  of  clean  white 
sand,  over  which  shallow  waters  lapped  in  silence.  Its 
modest  frame  residences,  facing  each  other,  like  soldiers 
of  a  brave  outpost,  stood  lined  up  along  the  one  main 
street,  on  which  some  attempt  at  grading  had  been  made. 
From  the  town  we  rode  eastward,  over  grassy  lands, 
among  palmettos  blackened  by  fires  which  occur  in 
the  dry  season,  and  along  the  shore  of  a  dark  still  lake. 
We  visited  settlers,  —  citrus  fruit  growers,  some  of 
whom  were  turning  toward  tobacco.  Their  homes  were 
all  comfortable.  One  stood  by  a  long,  shady  pool  of 
considerable  size,  on  which  they  had  launched  a  little 
rowboat,  and  there  were  ducks.  This  planter  was 
equipped  for  irrigation.  The  night  of  that  day  found 
us  at  the  Jones',  and  the  night  of  the  next  at  the 
SoUeys'.  The  morning  after  we  made  the  last 
twelve  miles  or  so  into  Guane,  driving  pellmell  along 
the  main  street  to  the  railway  station,  where  the  train 
already  puffed  to  be  off.     Half  a  dozen  willing  men, 


244  CUBA 

employees  and  loungers,  bundled  us  aboard,  bag  and 
baggage,  which  done,  the  conductor  gave  his  delayed 
signal  to  pull  out. 

It  is  two  years  and  more  since  I  made  that  trip,  and 
I  forget  many  details  of  the  visit,  but  not  the  way  the 
blood-red  sun  went  down  behind  the  singed  and 
withered  palmettos  along  the  road  to  the  Jones' ;  Poe 
has  put  the  spirit  of  that  landscape  into  '^  Ulalume ''  ! 
Nor  do  I  forget  the  thorough  hospitality  of  the  SoUeys, 
the  courtesy  and  the  cleanliness  of  their  table,  as  it 
was  spread  for  us  at  supper  time  and  again  for  a  day- 
break breakfast  on  which  the  blazing  morning  star 
looked  in  through  the  door,  shaming  our  yellow  lamp. 
I  remember  the  valiant  little  orange  trees,  putting 
forth  their  glossy  new  growth,  and  the  luxuriant  tobacco 
on  the  hill  at  Hato  Guane,  site,  probably,  of  the  origi- 
nal town ;  it  was  the  first  congregation  of  Europeans 
in  all  the  west  of  Cuba.  But  most  distinctly  of  all  do  I 
recollect  that  at  Ocean  Beach  I  was  hungry,  —  hungry 
with  a  depth  of  emptiness  there  did  not  seem  to  be 
enough  of  anything  available  to  appease,  —  not  even 
of  fresh  eggs  fried  at  the  Jones^  nor  of  sorrel  sauce; 
nor  of  bread  nor  thinly  sliced  cold  meat  at  the  SoUey's, 
nor  of  crackers,  nor  pie,  nor  anything  !  Nor  did  any 
realize  that  what  they  served  was  not  the  measure  of 
healthy  appetite  !     They  were  schooled  to  less. 

This  I  came  to  realize  as  I  heard  them  discuss  the 
fact  that  because  of  a  rumor  of  revolution  imminent  at 
Guane,  the  weekly  boat  had  brought  the  store  no  sup- 
plies !  Mrs.  SoUey  thought  she  had  enough  beans  and 
rice  to  tide  her  over  seven  lean  days ;  she  regretted 
that  she  must  decline,  for  the  time  being,  to  lend  her 
less  well-stocked  neighbors  any  flour  !  There  was  no 
revolution  in  prospect,  really ;   they  wondered,  vaguely, 


WEST   BY   RAIL  245 

what  recourse  they'd  resort  to  if  ever  there  were  trouble 
in  earnest,  entaihng  indefinite  delay  of  the  weekly  boat, 
and  cutting  off  railway  connection  with  Havana,  — 
sole  source  of  very  necessary  food  !  Appetite  enlivened 
my  imagination.  I  suggested  they  surround  the  wire- 
less station  the  United  Fruit  Company  maintains  on 
Cape  San  Antonio,  and  to  New  Orleans  send  a  cry  for 
help.  I  could,  especially  at  the  time,  imagine  what 
revenue  cutters,  laden  to  the  gunwale  with  provisions, 
that  gallant  city  would  send  across  in  response  to  such 
appeal ! 

Most  citrus  fruit  plantations  in  Pinar  del  Rio  Prov- 
ince are  nearer  Havana,  —  between  Candelaria  and 
Consolacion,  though  there  are  some  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  city  of  Pinar  itself.  The  majority  are 
set  in  sandy  or  gravelly  soils,  derived  from  adjacent 
highlands,  distributed  by  streams  and  floods.  This  soil 
is  notably  poor  in  plant  food.  Citrus  fruit  growers 
argue,  however,  as  they  supply  it  by  the  carload  in  the 
shape  of  fertilizer  at  an  average  price  of  $45  a  ton,  that 
precisely  because  this  is  true  they  are  enabled  to  control 
their  trees,  and  especially  the  quality  and  color  of  their 
fruit.  To  produce  a  grove  under  these  conditions 
necessitates,  however,  considerable  expense,  which  grow- 
ers are  now  finding  themselves  obliged  to  increase 
further  by  the  cost  of  irrigation.  Those  owners  who 
can  are  installing  plants. 

Because  they  did  not  understand  that  capital  and 
labor  both  are  required  to  develop  a  citrus  fruit  grove  in 
Cuba,  some  growers  have  had  to  abandon  their  estates. 
I  have  seen  fire  running  wantonly  through  one  such  de- 
serted grove  at  San  Cristobal,  licking  up  the  dry  grass 
from  among  the  stiff  dead  pineapple  plants  between 
rows  of  gaunt  and  leafless  trees,  set  out  there  by  God 


246  CUBA 

knows  what  tired  schoolma'am,  what  city-imprisoned 
bookkeeper,  what  pensioned  veteran  of  war  or  industry, 
whose  inexperience  detected  no  flaw  in  the  land-com- 
pany hterature  on  which  they  fed  their  enthusiasm 
for  a  ^^self-supporting  home'^  in  a  ^4and  of  perpetual 
June. "  Still  other  investors,  being  on  the  ground,  have 
been  able  to  shift  their  course  in. the  face  of  the  same 
adverse  circumstances  which  overwhelmed  the  absen- 
tees :  they  are  cultivating  secondary  crops,  —  tobacco, 
in  happy  cases  where  their  soil  is  suited  to  this  exacting 
plant,  or,  in  few  successful  instances,  vegetables,  —  from 
which  they  obtain  the  money  and  still  more  money  a 
citrus  fruit  grove  requires  (through  the  years,  —  five  to 
eight,  according  to  its  particular  circumstances)  to  bring 
it  to  full  bearing.  The  few  who  had  the  means  and  the 
determination  to  see  their  undertaking  through  without 
detrimental  and  delaying  economies  find  themselves,  like 
Orr  Brothers,  in  possession  of  handsome  groves  from 
which  they  are  just  beginning  to  obtain  fruit  of  a  quality 
that  challenges  comparison  with  the  best  grown  any- 
where. Because  many  have,  at  least  not  yet,  succeeded 
where  they  triumphed  (had  all  the  orange  trees  planted 
in  western  Cuba  arrived  at  even  average  bearing,  they 
must  have  flooded  the  local  market  carloads  deep  !), 
these  gentlemen  find  profitable  sale  near  by  for  all  the 
oranges  they  care  to  dispose  of  here  rather  than  ship, 
which  is,  to  be  exact,  about  all  the  oranges  they  grow. 

Shipping  expenses  are  high  between  groves  in  Cuba 
and  markets  of  the  United  States,  where  citrus  fruit 
must  be  sold,  until,  at  least,  better  connection  is  made 
with  Canadian,  and,  possibly,  European  demand.  The 
total  of  the  numerous  necessary  items  averages  from 
$1.50  to  $1.75  (round  numbers,  but  fairly  accurate,  I 
would  undertake  to  prove)  per  box  on  fruit  from  west- 


WEST   BY    RAIL  247 

ern  Cuba.  Competition  in  those  markets  is  keen,  and 
Cuban  oranges  do  not,  usually,  return  enough  to  the 
grower,  over  and  above  this  cost  of  shipment,  plus  cost 
of  production,  picking,  packing,  etc.,  to  recompense 
him  for  his  work.  A  cent  or  two  each  for  fruits  hang- 
ing in  his  grove,  or,  at  most,  delivered  by  the  cartload 
in  his  nearest  town,  '4ooks  good^'  to  him.  He  can  get 
it,  at  the  present  time. 

Grape  fruit,  on  the  other  hand,  repays  shipment. 
Cuban  grape  fruit  is  '^A  1,''  in  the  language  of  com- 
mission men  who  have  handled  fair  samples.  It  costs 
little  if  any  more  than  oranges  to  transport,  and  nothing 
more  to  grow,  pick,  and  pack ;  it  sells  higher,  and,  most 
important  of  all,  ^^  stands  up'^  through  long  voyages, 
which  fact  multiplies  the  markets  to  which  it  may 
hopefully  seek  admittance. 

In  the  fiscal  year  1908-1909,  the  island  of  Cuba 
shipped  about  40,000  boxes  of  citrus  fruit.  Of  these 
only  494  came  out  of  Pinar  del  Rio  Province  (from 
Artemisa  and  Taco  Taco).  To  the  total  from  western 
Cuba,  however,  Santiago  de  las  Vegas  added  253  boxes 
and  Rancho  Boyeros  6275.  These  towns  are  in  western 
Havana  Province. 

Western  Cuba  produces  pineapples.     Cubans  total 
crop  last  fiscal  year  was   1,263,466   crates,  of  which 
more  than  one    third  —  463,473,  to  be  exact  —  came 
into  Havana  from  towns  on  the  Western  Railway  line 
Artemisa  contributing  298,966  crates ;   Canas,  141,586 
San  Cristobal,  9077 ;   Alquizar,  6750 ;   Palacios,  3160 
Taco  Taco,  2537;   Paso   Real,  819;    Candelaria,  578. 
During  the  season  now  ending  exportation  was  even 
larger  (over  1,300,000  crates),  of  which  the  region  un- 
der consideration  produced  half.     Despite  evidence  to 
the  contrary  which  the  size  of  the  crop  marketed  would 


248  CUBA 

seem  to  constitute,  pineapples  are  not  profitable  to  their 
growers.  It  can  be  proven  by  documents  covering 
actual  shipments  that  the  planter  loses  money  on  every 
crate  of  fruit  sent  forward.  Frequently  it  is  a  fact 
that  he  does  lose ;  acres  and  acres  of  plants  set  out 
have  been  abandoned  during  the  past  few  years.  No 
new  plantings  have  been  made.  Usually,  however, 
the  grower  who  ships  is  "taken  care  of  by  the  for- 
warder, who  advances  him  at  least  crates,  paper,  and 
nails.  The  interesting  mystery  is  why  the  forwarder 
should  lend  his  encouragement ;  were  there  such  a  thing 
as  an  international  commerce  commission,  the  reason 
might  be  revealed.  There  is  no  sentiment,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  law,  against  rebating  in  freights  by  water  between 
the  United  States  and  Cuba.  Meanwhile,  the  present 
situation  is  satisfactory  to  nobody ;  the  whole  fabric  of 
Cuba's  biggest  fruit  business  rests  on  an  unstable  base. 
Economy  and  skill  in  growing,  elimination  of  terrific 
waste  in  transit,  and  reform  in  matters  of  forwarding 
are  imperatively  necessary  if  a  crisis  (avoided  this  pass- 
ing season  only  by  extraordinary  circumstances)  and 
the  ruin  of  the  whole  traffic  in  Cuban  pines  is  to  be 
averted. 

There  would  seem  to  be  an  opening  in  western  Cuba 
for  a  pineapple  cannery.  It  is  my  impression  that  it 
would  have  to  be  undertaken  on  a  scale  to  attract  favor- 
able attention  from  this  not  too  observant  government, 
expressed,  say,  in  drawback  on  sheet  tin  or  tin  cans, 
since  these  materials  must  be  imported  and  duty  is  high. 

There  are  seven  sugar  mills  in  Pinar  del  Rio  Province. 
During  the  last  five  years  their  output,  combined,  has 
been  914,218  bags,  or  only  two  per  cent  of  the  island's. 
** Before  the  war,''  this  industry  had  far  greater  impor- 
tance in  the  west  than  it  now  enjoys.     It  offers,  in  this 


WEST    BY    RAIL  249 

quarter,  opportunity  for  the  profitable  investment  of 
conservative  capital. 

Such  opportunities  are,  however,  plentiful  in  this 
region,  especially  just  now  that  good  roads  have  made 
available  certain  sections  of  the  province  not,  in  all  the 
centuries  their  exceptional  qualities  have  been  known, 
properly  exploited,  because  of  their  inaccessibility. 


CHAPTER   XII 

WEST    BY    ROAD 

**  The  Cart  Roads  of  Magoon'' 

All  Cuba,  but  most  particularly  Pinar  del  Rio  Prov- 
ince, owes  gratitude  to  the  former  provisional  governor, 
Judge  Charles  E.  Magoon,  who  ordered  roads  built, 
and  to  Colonel  William  M.  Black,  who  planned  and 
executed  the  project  for  their  construction. 

One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  agricultural 
development  of  Cuba  has  been,  ever  since  such  effort 
first  began,  the  almost  complete  absence  of  improved 
roads.  Maps  of  Cuba  show  a  network  of  lines  all  over 
the  country,  which  their  legends  assure  the  unwary  are 
roads  ;  in  truth,  these  lines  indicate  only  rights-of-way, 
which  are  hard  enough  usually  in  the  dry  season  to  per- 
mit wheel  traffic,  but  become  nearly  or  quite  impassable, 
sometimes  even  for  pack  animals,  during  the  wet  season, 
which  is  May  to  November.  The  immense  detriment 
this  is  to  the  country  will  be  appreciated  when  it  is  re- 
called that  Cuba  is  entirely  an  agricultural  community. 

For  more  than  two  hundred  years  preceding  the  final 
struggle  between  Spain  and  Cuba  the  people  begged 
roads  of  successive  regimes.  Petitions  were  drawn  up, 
especially  through  the  Economic  Society  of  Friends  of 
the  Country,  a  learned  body  vested  with  certain  advi- 
sory privileges.  Extensive  plans  were  prepared,  —  and 
pigeonholed.     When  the  Cuban  congress  came  into  ex- 

250 


WEST    BY    ROAD  251 

istence,  the  need  of  a  definite  program  of  road  construc- 
tion by  the  state  was  placed  before  it,  —  and  ignored. 

Meanwhile,  the  Cuban  countryman  continued  to 
produce  bumper  crops  of  sugar  and  the  cream  of  the 
world's  tobacco,  amid  conditions  entailing  heavy 
economic  waste,  and  such  delay  and  hard  usage  in 
transportation  from  field  to  shipping  point  that  he  was 
effectively  prevented  from  exploiting  any  secondary 
crop  on  which  to  fall  back  in  case  of  the  failure  of  the 
two  principal  crops.  This  restriction  to  two  crops, 
both,  on  the  whole,  somewhat  uncertain,  has  kept 
financial  conditions  in  Cuba  unstable. 

Unstable  financial  conditions  have  had  their  direct 
effect  on  the  general  temper  of  the  people  here.  It  is  a 
fact  that  every  political  disturbance  of  magnitude  in 
Cuba  has  followed  a  failure  of  either  the  sugar  or  the 
tobacco  crop,  most  especially  the  sugar  crop,  since  it  is 
the  principal  interest  of  a  larger  area  in  the  island. 
The  Spanish  counted  low  prices  on  sugar  an  infallible 
sign  of  impending  revolution ;  vice  versa,  when  sugar 
sold  high  they  rested  on  their  arms.  At  the  present 
time  it  is  commonly  remarked  that  the  exceptional 
prosperity  of  the  sugar  industry  during  the  past  two 
seasons  (thanks  to  fine  weather  and  favorable  conditions, 
from  Cuba's  point  of  view,  in  the  world's  market) 
is  what  has  so  far  upheld  the  existing  Liberal  regime. 
When  prices  are  up,  everybody  is  too  busy  making  money 
to  conspire  or  execute  conspiracies.  When  prices 
go  down  there  are  idle  hands,  and  the  devil  provides 
mischief.  Poverty,  frequently  actual  hunger,  have  in 
times  past  induced  ''patriots"  to  take  up  arms  merely 
because  men  in  arms  may  forage. 

There  is  no  secondary  crop,  largely  because  sugar  and 
tobacco  are  profitable.     Even  when  they  are  not  more 


252       '  CUBA 

profitable  than  other  crops  could  be  made  to  be,  they 
are  still  the  two  crops  the  countryman  knows  how  to 
grow  best,  —  he  has,  in  short,  ^^got  the  habit  ^'  of  pro- 
ducing just  tobacco  and  sugar  and  nothing  more. 
Furthermore,  few  crops  withstand,  like  sugar  and 
tobacco,  transportation  over  such  ways  as  Cuba  has 
heretofore  called  roads.  Corn  can  be  carried  far  and 
roughly,  and,  by  the  same  token,  it  comes  nearest  con- 
stituting a  secondary  crop  of  any,  for  it  is  produced 
largely,  and  at  the  rate  of  two  crops  per  year  in  many 
districts,  especially  wild  country  in  the  far  east.  The 
local  supply,  however,  does  not  meet  the  domestic 
demand.  In  limited  regions  cacao  and  coffee  are  grown 
for  sale,  often  far  up  among  mountains.  Big  pineapple 
plantations  are  always  close  to  railway  lines.  Every 
countryman,  as  I  have  remarked,  allows  some  root 
crops  (the  same,  undoubtedly,  that  Father  Adam 
gnawed  outside  the  garden  gate  !)  and  a  brave  plantain 
or  so,  to  linger  in  his  dooryard ;  he  does  not,  however, 
cultivate  them,  for  he  is  too  busy  in  the  tobacco  field  or 
in  the  nearest  cane  field,  where  he  works  hard  on  an 
average  per  diem  wage  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter.  It  is  to 
me  a  most  astonishing  anomaly  that  this  most  fertile 
island  does  not  feed  itself.  Even  its  rural  population 
does  not  grow  minor  crops  sufficient  to  sustenance, 
to  say  nothing  of  supporting  villages,  towns,  and  cities. 
These  being  the  facts,  it  is  obvious  that  road  building 
is  a  step  toward  diversified  crops,  and  the  protection 
they  constitute  against  ^'famine.''  Therefore,  since 
hunger  is  inspiration  to  revolution,  road  building  is  also 
an  assurance  to  peace,  so  vitally  necessary  to  Cuba, 
and  a  step  toward  genuine  independence  she  can  hardly 
hope  to  enjoy  so  long  as  she  remains  utterly  dependent 
on  the  United  States  not  only  for  the  sale  of  her  only 


WEST    BY    ROAB  253 

crops,  but  also  for  the  purchase  of  the  very  food  she  must 
have  from  day  to  day. 

Frankly  giving  these  as  his  reasons  for  so  expending 
the  millions  then  accumulated  in  the  national  treasury 
as  surplus,  Governor  Charles  Magoon,  on  April  19,  1907, 
endorsed  the  plan  of  public  improvements  drawn  up  in 
the  Department  of  Public  Works,  over  which  Colonel 
William  M.  Black  presided  as  advisor.  Its  principal 
feature  was  road  work.  It  was  proposed  to  build  a 
grand  trunk  highway  from  Santiago  de  Cuba  at  the 
east  end  of  the  island  to  La  Fe,  at  the  west,  connecting 
all  the  principal  cities,  from  which  main  line  branch 
roads  will  be  thrown  out  north  and  south  to  at  least 
one  port  on  each  shore  in  each  of  the  six  provinces. 
It  had  been  intended  to  distribute  the  work  ratably 
throughout  the  country  and  to  begin  it  in  each  province 
at  about  the  same  time.  Instead  it  was  found  desirable 
to  give  Pinar  del  Rio  Province  the  preference,  though 
the  work  elsewhere  was  not  neglected. 

The  revolution  which  overthrew  Palma  and  occasioned 
American  intervention  in  1906  broke  first  in  the  west. 
In  the  fastnesses  of  the  western  hills  Pino  Guerra,  who 
led  the  revolt,  had  recruited  his  followers,  and  there  he 
flitted  hither  and  yon  all  through  August  and  September, 
leading  the  government  forces  a  vain  chase  through 
wilderness.  Into  the  west  every  idler  in  the  island 
hurried  forthwith,  intent  on  battening  on  disturbance. 
In  October,  following  the  political  upset  of  September,  a 
cyclone  swept  the  island.  The  tobacco  crop,  owing 
to  ^Hhe  Little  War''  and  the  big  storm,  was  estimated 
a  total  failure.  The  sugar  mills  of  the  center  and  east 
had  closed  down,  throwing  thousands  of  men  into  the 
vortex.     Every  omen  was  portentous. 

In  May,  1907,  work  on  the  roads  in  the  west  com- 


254 


CUBA 


menced.  The  very  camp  followers  who  had  gone  into 
Pinar  del  Rio  looking  for  trouble  were  attracted  by  the 
wages  offered,  and  accepted  work  on  the  government 
roads  instead.  A  very  serious  aftermath  of  "the  Little 
War''  was  unquestionably  thus  averted. 

Realizing  that  the  torrential  rains  of  the  tropics 
would  soon  render  dirt  roads  useless,  the  government 
undertook  the  construction  of  highways  built  to  last, 
on  a  solid  foundation  of  telford  macadam  of  the  best 
stone  native  quarries  afford,  and  finished  throughout 
without  neglect  of  any  detail  requisite  to  durability. 
The  right  of  way  is  uniformly  twenty  meters,  of  which 
the  pavement  covers  sixteen  feet.  Culverts  are  made  of 
concrete,  and  the  bridges  of  steel  or  native  hard  woods. 
Where  needed  to  protect  the  roads  from  inundation, 
ditches  have  been  dug  to  drain  low  lands.  At  inter- 
vals first  of  six  and  now  of  eight  kilometers,  neat  houses 
have  been  erected  in  which  dwell  public-works  peoneSy 
whose  duty  it  is  to  keep  in  good  condition  the  extent  of 
highway  confided  to  their  care.  In  their  yards  these 
employees  are  growing  trees  which  will  be  set  out  all 
along  the  new  roads,  after  the  Spanish  custom,  which 
makes  travel  over  public  highways  such  as  these  a  cool 
delight  the  year  around,  no  matter  what  the  tempera- 
ture out  from  under  the  leafy  canopy  of  foliage  which 
laurels  and  royal  poncianas  stretch  above  them. 

Now  a  main  east-and-west  highway  through  ap- 
proximately the  center  of  the  island  already  existed  in 
fair  condition  and  constant  use,  from  Havana  westward 
as  far  as  San  Cristobal,  a  town  92i  kilometers  from 
Havana  and  80  kilometers  from  Pinar  del  Rio  City. 
In  conformity  with  the  general  plan,  of  which  this  ex- 
isting road  was  really  part,  contracts  were  let  to  con- 
tinue it  through  to  the  western  capital.         . 


*  •  ••  ( 

•  •  •  * 


WEST    BY    BO  AD         .  255 

Theoretically,  there  was  a  road  westward  from  San 
Cristobal.  Theoretically,  it  passed  through  the  prin- 
cipal centers  of  population  on  the  plain  south  of  the 
Organos.  In  fact,  that  road,  from  San  Cristobal  on, 
was  a  linked  chain  of  bog  boles  interrupted  by  rivers  it 
was  unwise  to  ford  in  the  rainy  season  when  the  palm- 
tree  bridges  oxcart  drivers  had  thrown  across  had  been 
washed  downstream.  In  fact,  after  1895-1896,  it  lay 
to  the  north  of  some  of  the  principal  towns,  —  to  wit, 
Taco  Taco,  Palacios,  Paso  Real  de  San  Diego,  and  Herra- 
dura.  Not  the  road,  however,  but  the  towns,  were  to 
blame  ;  they  moved,  not  it.  When  they  were  rebuilt  in 
times  of  peace  after  Maceo  had  burned  them,  they  aban- 
doned their  old  sites,  north  of  the  Western  Railway  line, 
to  take  up  life  anew,  alongside  the  tracks.  Therefore 
the  new  government  road,  because  it  follows  the  course 
of  the  old  road,  misses  these  towns  which  moved;  it 
crosses  their  old  sites,  or  passes  even  north  of  them, 
and  from  their  old  deserted  locations  branch  roads  have 
been  thrown  out,  like  feelers,  in  search  of  the  runaway 
towns. 

For  instance,  the  new  highway  passes  through  what 
used  to  be  the  main  street  of  Santa  Cruz  ;  from  there  a 
two-kilometer  branch  goes  south  to  Taco  Taco.  There 
is  a  five-kilometer  branch  from  the  main  line  to  the 
modern  town  of  Palacios  on  the  railway.  From  the 
station  of  Paso  Real  de  San  Diego  a  fine  branch  road 
strikes  northward  over  the  site  of  the  old  town,  and,  con- 
tinuing even  across  the  central  highway,  arrives  at  the 
famous  health  resort  of  San  Diego  de  los  Baiios. 

To  the  statement  that  the  towns  of  Pinar  del  Rio 
Province  are  uninteresting  one  exception  at  least  must 
be  made,  and  that  in  favor  of  San  Diego  de  los  Banos, 
nestled  among  foothills  of  the  Organos.     San  Diego  is 


256  .  CUBA 

modern ;  it  was  built  in  1843  by  D.  Luis  Pedroso,  who 
platted  it  in  correct  squares  around  a  central  park 
named  Plaza  de  Isabel  II.  The  town  got  its  name  from 
a  cattle  range  known  as  Corral  (not  an  inclosure,  but  a 
ranch)  de  San  Diego,  in  honor,  probably,  of  the  saint  ^ 
of  the  owner,  one  Diego  de  Zayas,  to  whom  it  was 
transferred  in  1632  by  Mateo  Pedroso,  proprietor  of  a 
still  larger  estate  of  which  its  lands  formed  part. 

The  streets  of  San  Diego  are  laid  at  strict  right  angles ; 
they  are  rocky  where  stones  meant  to  pave  them  have 
been  trodden  out  of  place  or  lifted  by  vegetation  grow- 
ing between  flags  and  among  cobbles.  Some  of  the 
houses  are  raised,  in  the  endeavor  to  maintain  a  level 
against  the  sudden  dropping  away  of  the  street,  on 
foundations  the  height  of  which  makes  necessary  a 
flight  of  steps  from  the  sidewalk,  when  there  is  one,  to 
the  front  door  or  portico. 

The  village,  ^^  situated  in  the  bottom  of  a  valley  (alti- 
tude, by  the  way,  is  225  meters  above  sea  level),  .  .  . 
seems  to  be  quite  surrounded  with  compajct  and  beauti- 
ful palm  groves,  which  lend  it  an  enchanting  aspect,  and 
form  an  outlook  sufficient  in  itself  to  enliven  the  spirit 
of  the  most  melancholy. ''  I  am  quoting  from  Dr.  Jos6 
Miguel  Cabarrouy. 

'^Vegetation  in  general  is  varied  and  exuberant,  as 
becomes  a  tropical  country :  the  soil  is  wonderfully  fer- 
tile. 'Small  fruits'  are  produced  in  plenty,  and  the 
district    exports    an    important    tobacco    crop,  —  not 


^  San  Diego  means  St.  James.  Spanish  Catholics  claim  as  their 
saint  that  one  whose  festival  falls  on  their  birthday ;  they  usually 
bear  his  name  and  consider  him  patron  of  their  affairs.  If  they 
choose  as  their  name  that  of  a  saint  whose  day  falls  on  other  than  their 
birthday,  they  celebrate  their  ''saint's  day,"  instead  of  the  anni- 
versary of  their  birth. 


WEST    BY    BOAD  257 

'genuine  Vuelta  Abajo/  it  is  true,  but  of  the  quality 
known  as  semi-vueltaj  much  in  demand  in  the  United 
States.  In  the  hills  a  leaf  is  had,  which,  because  of  its 
quality,  obtains  an  even  better  price,  and  is  used  in  the 
cigar  factories  of  Havana.  '^ 

Hard  woods  abound  in  the  mountains  back  of  the 
town,  —  cedar,  mahogany,  majagua,  oak,  and  many 
another  precious  variety,  together  with  tall  and  vener- 
able pine  trees'.  ^^ Fruit  trees  grow  even  wild:  in  the 
fastnesses  of  the  hills  everywhere  there  are  mangos  ^ 
guanabanas,  sour  oranges,  mameyes,  both  the  red  and 
the  Santo  Domingan  varieties,  mamom,  caimito,  canitel, 
and  others,  while  on  cultivated  lands  and  about  ranch 
houses  one  sees  zapotes,  mangos,  pineapples,  pomelos, 
limes,  anones,  cocoanut  palms,  guavas,  and  all  sorts  of 
banana  trees.''  The  woods  are  full  of  little  birds, 
gay-colored  and  cheerful.     There  are  deer. 

The  San  Diego  River  bounds  the  town  upon  two  sides. 
This  stream  takes  its  rise  in  the  mountains  above,  and 
flows  southward,  passing  through  the  Portals.  The 
Portals  are,  I  understand,  a  narrow  exit  water- worn 
through  rock,  which,  if  closed  again,  would  cause  a  great 
lake  or  reservoir  to  form,  up  there  in  the  hills  ;  and  from 
it  all  the  arid  sections  of  the  distant  southern  plain 
might  be  irrigated,  were  proper  pipe  lines  laid.  Engi- 
neers consider  such  a  project  feasible,  and  its  necessity 
has  already  been  considered  by  the  government,  dur- 
ing Governor  Magoon's  provisional  administration. 

All  the  left  bank  of  the  river  is  ''sown,''  as  Dr.  Ca- 
barrouy  puts  it,  ''with  springs  of  sulphurous  water, 
some  hot  and  some  cold. "  The  most  famous  are  within 
the  village  of  San  Diego.  The  story  is  that  their  exist- 
ence and  marvelous  curative  qualities  were  discovered 
quite  by  accident.     ' '  A  slave  named  Domingo  developed 


258  CUBA 

a  repugnant  skin  disease,  and  his  master,  with  the  laud- 
able intention  of  avoiding  its  transmission  to  his  other 
slaves,  freed  the  man,  giving  him  liberty  to  go  away, 
where  he  would.  Wandering  among  the  hills  Domingo 
chanced  upon  a  cavern  (the  cave  of  Taita  Domingo  is 
still  shown  to  visitors),  near  the  left  bank  of  the  San 
Diego  River,  close  by  the  present  town,  wherein  he  made 
his  lair,  living  as  best  he  could  on  roots  and  fruits. 
He  bathed  in  the  stream.  One  day  as  he  was  wading 
up  the  river  he  noticed  with  surprise  that  the  water  had 
become  warm.  He  glanced  at  the  bottom  on  which  he 
stood,  and  saw  that  for  some  three  yards  all  about  him 
it  was  white  as  though  the  rocks  there  had  been  white- 
washed. He  discovered,  too,  that  in  that  spot  the 
water  welled  forth,  rising  slightly  above  the  level  of  the 
rest.'' 

In  short,  Domingo  had  stumbled  upon  the  sulphur 
springs  of  San  Diego.  He  bathed  in  them,  and  was  cured 
of  his  malady,  whereupon  he  returned  to  his  master  and 
spread  the  good  tidings. 

The  two  main  springs  were  early  known  as  Templado 
and  Tigre ;  where  their  overflows  met  was  designated  as 
Paila  Bath.     These  names  continue  in  use. 

The  fame  of  the  waters  went  abroad.  The  sick 
sought  them,  and  were  cured,  the  really  beneficent  quali- 
ties they  possess  being  aided  in  their  work  by  the  resin- 
ous, clean,  cool  atmosphere  of  the  place,  and  by  the 
calming  restfulness  of  all  the  surroundings.  In  1868, 
San  Diego  was  made  an  acclimation  and  hospital  camp 
for  Spanish  troops.  Municipalities  all  over  the  island 
shipped  their  indigent  sick  to  the  springs.  Fashion  at 
the  same  time  favored  San  Diego.  Handsome  bath- 
houses, with  ornate  columns,  garden  seats,  and  long 
walks  under  arches,  were  erected  there.     Fashionable 


WEST    BY    ROAD  259 

beauties  came  in  volantaSy  driving  up  even  from  San 
Cristobal  when  the  railway  reached  no  farther.  Gentle- 
men on  horseback  escorted  them.  Serving-people  fol- 
lowed in  caravans.  The  season  at  San  Diego  was  bril- 
liant then,  as  slavery  and  high-priced  sugar  could  make 
it. 

But  war  came.  The  Ten  Years'  struggle,  far  from 
adversely  affecting  the  west,  actually  lent  it  unusual 
prosperity.  In  1895,  however,  when  Maceo  rode  over 
Pinar  del  Rio,  the  village  of  San  Diego  was  abandoned 
by  its  residents,  who  fled  —  men,  women,  and  children 
—  over  the  hills  to  the  north  coast  and  thence  to  Ha- 
vana, by  boat.  The  revolutionists  entered  the  town 
freely.  They  would  have  burned  it,  save  that  a  ransom 
was  promised.  While  negotiations  were  in  progress 
concerning  the  sum  of  money  to  be  raised,  the  Spanish 
came  back  and  occupied  the  barracks. 

In  1895,  too,  it  was  that  a  freshet  (not  unusual  to  the 
San  Diego  River)  came  ripping  down  the  canon,  and  in 
one  mad  whirl  carried  away  bathhouses,  promenades, 
piping,  garden  seats,  arches,  and  all  that  stood  for  the 
opulent,  indolent  resort  of  the  passing  regime. 

The  health-giving  springs  remained,  bubbling  among 
the  debris.  Their  flow  continues  unchanged,  year  in, 
year  out.  Temporary  bathhouses  have  been  erected. 
Society  still  foregathers  at  San  Diego  during  its  season, 
which  is  from  February  on  into  the  summer. 

San  Diego  pleases  foreigners.  Among  its  distin- 
guished visitors  have  been  many  Americans  of  promi- 
nence, such,  for  instance,  as  Generals  Grant  and 
Sherman,  who  visited  the  springs  accompanied  by  quite 
a  party  in  1886,  and  also  leading  officials  of  the  Ameri- 
can Armies  of  Occupation  and  Pacification  in  Cuba, 
some  one  of  whom,  by  the  way,  cut  out  and  bore  away 


260  CUBA 

the  signatures  of  Grant  and  Sherman,  which  were 
the  pride  of  the  register  of  Hotel  Cabarrouy ;  by  the 
manner  in  which  the  landlady  relates  this  incident  I 
gather  that  she  was  paid  to  permit  the  mutilation  of 
her  book. 

Some  distance  west  of  the  crossing  of  the  branch  road 
to  San  Diego  with  the  main  highway  between  Havana 
and  Pinar,  an  eight-kilometer  branch  leads  south,  over 
the  site  of  the  original  village,  to  the  new  Herradura, 
an  American  town  on  the  railway  line.  This  road,  as 
it  approaches  the  station,  constitutes  the  main  street 
of  the  village,  facing  which  are  stores,  a  church  building 
which  is  at  once  townhall  and  school  also,  and,  here 
and  there  in  the  double  row,  the  comfortable  homes  of 
settlers  who  have  preferred  to  reside  among  neighbors 
rather  than  in  opener  country.  Here,  too,  is  the  hotel. 
Herradura  was,  until  its  acquisition  in  1904  by  an 
American  land  company,  a  cattle  range  owned  by  the 
Pino  family  for  a  hundred  years  at  least,  on  available 
parts  of  which  tobacco  was  produced,  as  it  is  still  pro- 
duced, in  fact,  by  the  present  representative  of  the 
original  owners,  by  his  partidarios  {vegueros  who  grow 
tobacco  on  shares),  and  some  few  of  the  American 
settlers  who  raise  this  crop  along  with  citrus  fruit 
groves  and  vegetable  gardens.  These  American  resi- 
dents on  the  tract  now  number  some  300,  men  and 
women  largely  from  the  northwestern  United  States, 
of  the  highest  type  of  pioneer. 

The  town  of  Consolacion,  just  beyond  Herradura, 
stood  by  its  original  site  despite  the  war ;  a  branch  road 
three  kilometers  long  leads  from  the  town  to  the  rail- 
way station,  the  main  road  passing  through  the  town. 
From  Consolacion  the  highway  takes  its  logical  course 
to  Pinar  del  Rio  City,  in  part  following  the  line  of  the 


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P/iotograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Quarry  beyond  Luis  Lazo 

Stone  for  macadamization  piled  ready  for  hauling 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

QuAifRYiNG  Native  Stones  for  Road   Dressing,  in  Pinar 

DEL  Rio 


WEST    BY    ROAD  261 

old  highway  and  in  part  opening  up  new  country.  It 
passes  through  no  towns. 

The  central  trunk  line  does  not  terminate  in  that 
city.  There  it  swerves  north  and  west,  continuing 
through  the  Cabezas,  Sumidero,  Luis  Lazo,  and  San 
Carlos  districts,  whence  it  bends  back  to  Guane,  thence 
resuming  its  northerly  trend  and  pressing  on  toward 
Mantua  and  Los  Arroyos,  that  town's  shipping  port  on 
the  north  coast. 

Considering  the  road  north  and  west  of  Pinar  del 
Rio  City  as  part,  as  it  is,  of  the  main  trunk  line  out  of 
Havana,  calculation  shows  that  that  central  artery  of 
traffic,  if  ever  completed,  will  extend  from  the  national 
capital  to  the  very  end  of  the  island,  over  an  inter- 
vening distance  of  173|  miles,  exclusive  of  all  branch 
lines,  which  aggregate,  say,  120  miles  more. 

Between  Havana  and  Pinar  del  Rio  City  the  high- 
way is  complete,  and  it  is  as  smooth  and  white  as  a 
marble  table-top.  Automobiles  speed  upon  it,  without 
restriction  on  velocity.  While  interesting,  and,  in  some 
neighborhoods,  very  beautiful,  this  stretch  of  road  is 
lacking,  nevertheless,  in  the  very  picturesque  features 
to  be  noted  elsewhere,  especially  along  the  roads  beyond 
Pinar.  One  is  impressed  with  its  utility,  whereas,  along 
these  other  roads,  one  realizes  that  they  are  lovely 
rather  than  that  they  are  useful,  or,  what  was  more 
important  in  the  government's  mind  when  they  were 
planned,  that  they  are  military  roads  built  for  military 
purposes.  Unfortunately  the  main  highway  is  not 
completed  through  to  Guane ;  there  is  an  unfinished 
stretch  between  Pinar  and  that  town,  over  which  auto- 
mobiles make  their  way  with  difficulty.  The  govern- 
ment ran  out  of  funds  before  the  work  was  ended ;  the 
contractor  went  as  far  as  he  thought  the  administration's 


262  CUBA 

credit  good,  then  paid  off  his  laborers,  and  quit.  His 
bill  is  still  unsettled. 

At  kilometer  10  out  of  Pinar  on  the  way  to  Luis  Lazo, 
the  road  climbs  to  an  elevation  of  about  800  feet ; 
from  this  vantage  point  travelers  obtain  a  wide  view 
of  all  the  undulating  plain  to  the  southward,  even 
to  the  featureless  shore  the  Caribbean  meets.  On  a 
very  clear  day  the  waters  of  that  sea  are  distinguishable. 
The  city  of  Pinar  del  Rio  occupies  the  middle  fore- 
ground. In  the  distance,  looking  northwestward,  are 
the  higher  ridges  of  the  Organo  range. 

Between  kilometer  posts  10  and  18  on  this  road, 
the  Huston  Company  did  the  heaviest  work  attempted 
on  any  highway  in  Cuba.  In  building  those  eight  kilo- 
meters over  500,000  cubic  feet  of  earth  were  moved, 
cut  and  fill.  Literally,  the  hills  were  leveled  that  the 
road  might  have  its  way.  Gulches  have  been  built 
up  ;  summits  have  been  torn  down.  All  the  country- 
side is  rent  and  scarred  with  the  struggle,  but  the  road 
passes  through,  triumphantly  maintaining  its  grade. 

In  succession  the  highway  traverses  the  Isabel  Maria, 
Cabezas,  Sumidero,  Luis  Lazo,  and  San  Carlos  valleys, 
touching  the  little  towns  which  are  their  respective 
centers  of  settlement. 

These  valleys  are,  in  general,  fertile,  flat-bottomed 
inclosures  shut  in  by  abrupt  walls  of  limestone  from 
the  crevices  of  which  stunted  palms  shoot  upward; 
wherever  there  is  soil  to  support  the  roots,  verdure 
sprouts  to  hang  the  rocks  with  green.  Wherever  he 
found  conditions  suitable  the  native  tobacco  grower  has 
prepared  his  patch  of  ground,  even  atop  the  cliffs 
themselves  in  places  so  precarious  that  his  only  means 
of  ascent  and  descent  is  a  rope. 

From  Guane,  approached  from  north  of  the  moun- 


WEST    BT    ROAB  263 

tains  through  which  the  road  has  worked  its  way  since 
it  left  Pinar,  the  highway  is  projected  on  toward 
Mantua  and  Arroyos,  but  only  the  grading  has  been 
done,  in  part. 

The  general  plan  of  road  work  called,  as  has  been 
noted,  for  branch  roads  to  one  south  coast  port  and  to 
one  north  coast  port,  in  each  province.  With  its  logical 
south  coast  port,  Coloma,  the  City  of  Pinar  del  Rio  has 
been  connected  by  way  of  a  good  road  since  the  time  of 
the  American  Occupation,  in  1898-1902.  What  repairs 
this  highway  needed  were  made  in  1907.  It  was  de- 
cided to  build  a  second  south  branch  road  to  the  neigh- 
boring port  of  Punta  de  Cartas,  below  the  town  of  San 
Juan  y  Martinez.  This  branch  is  some  ten  miles  long ; 
it  lies  through  a  low  and  level  country,  uninteresting 
after  the  tobacco  fields  are  left  behind. 

North  and  a  little  west  of  Pinar  del  Rio  City  is  the 
port  of  Esperanza,  a  harbor  frequented  by  coasting 
schooners  and  the  weekly  north  shore  steamer.  It  was 
determined  to  build  the  north  branch  road  demanded 
by  the  general  plan,  from  Pinar  del  Rio  City  to  Esper- 
anza via  the  famous  Valley  of  Vifiales  and  San  Vicente 
Vale. 

Out  of  Pinar  del  Rio  City  this  highway  descends 
gentle  slopes,  between  tobacco  fields.  It  ascends  again, 
amid  patches  of  yuca,  malanga,  and  sweet  potato  vines 
alternating  with  tobacco.  Everywhere,  in  the  shade  of 
mango  and  aguacate  trees,  are  shaggy  huts. 

As  the  country  in  general  rises  to  the  foothills  north 
of  the  city  lands  less  adapted  to  tobacco  succeed  pre- 
ferred areas,  and  cultivated  tracts  become  rarer.  Pine 
trees  put  in  appearance,  standing  side  by  side  with 
royal  palms  and  manaca  palms  almost  as  regal.  The 
road  winds  through  the  foothills,  twisting  with  many 


264  CUBA 

a  crook  and  turn  to  avoid  grades  above  the  permissible 
maximum.  The  summit  is  reached  at  an  altitude  of 
850  feet.  The  view  from  here,  fine  as  it  is,  is  not  com- 
parable with  that  other  which  greets  the  traveler, 
suddenly,  as,  having  traversed  the  famous  field  where, 
in  1896,  occurred  the  bloody  battle  of  the  Guao,  he 
arrives  on  the  brink  of  the  Valley  of  Vinales,  low-lying 
among  the  peculiar  monolithic  mountains  termed, 
locally,  mogotes. 

Evidently  all  the  valley  was  once  one  tremendous 
cave,  worn  in  the  limestone  formation  of  the  Orango 
Range  by  the  constant  motion  of  subterraneous  waters. 
The  mogotes  were  the  pillars  which  supported  the  roof 
on  a  level  with  the  plateau  to  which  the  road  has  climbed 
laboriously ;  they  happened  to  be  of  harder  formation 
than  the  surrounding  stone,  and  resisted  erosion.  One 
fearful  day  in  the  long  ago  the  top  of  that  great  cave 
fell  in ;  its  debris  have  long  since  crumbled,  disintegrat- 
ing to  form  the  fairly  level  and  very  fertile  floor  of  the 
valley.  The  pillars  which  originally  supported  the  roof, 
however,  —  the  upright  mogotes^  —  have  continued  to 
resist  erosion,  and  all  attacks  of  wind  and  sunlight  after 
rain ;  they  rise  above  the  floor  level  to  heights  varying 
from  six  hundred  to  two  thousand  feet.  They  look 
like  projecting  fingers  of  Titan  hands  grasping  from 
earth,  or,  where  they  are  larger,  like  gigantic  knuckles 
protruding.  Their  sheer  cliffs  are  scarred  and  weather- 
beaten. 

In  the  valley  itself  the  veguero  cultivates  his  tobacco 
fields  in  patchwork  fashion.  His  thatched  hut  stands 
in  crannies  under  the  cliffs,  or  again  bravely  out  in  the 
open,  a  dot  on  plowed  ground.  Roads  and  bridle 
paths  fine  the  level.  The  place  looks  like  a  child's 
sand  map  (as  I  saw  it  in  the  season  when  the  tobacco 


WEST    BY    ROAD  265 

had  not  yet  come  up  green  and  tender  to  carpet  all  the 
fields)  decorated  with  toy  huts  and  stiffly  straight  palm 
trees. 

In  the  midst  of  the  valley  is  the  town  of  Vinales, 
red-roofed,  white-pillared,  incredibly  clean  and  pros- 
perous. It  has  its  church  in  a  barren  square.  Its 
streets  cross  at  right  angles. 

Beyond  the  town  the  road  leads  on,  through  the 
Gap,  a  narrow  gateway  opening  into  a  smaller  vale, 
that  of  San  Vicente,  very  similar  to  the  main  valley  in 
origin,  doubtless.  Its  bottom,  too,  is  exceedingly  good 
tobacco  land,  and  appreciatively  cultivated.  The  Gap 
itself  is  a  portal :  on  both  sides  tower  cliffs  of  whit- 
ish limestone,  ornamented  still  with  stalactites  and  sta- 
lagmites which  proclaim  the  fact  that  once  it  was  the 
passage  of  an  underground  river.  The  mountains  cast 
a  chill  shadow  on  the  road. 

Just  beyond  the  Gap  are  the  sulphur  springs  of  San 
Vicente.  They  equal  in  curative  qualities,  it  is  said, 
those  of  San  Diego  de  los  Bafios,  with  which  they  are 
closely  allied,  according  to  analysis.  What  bathhouses 
there  used  to  be  have  fallen  into  ruin ;  mud  and  grass 
choke  the  springs  themselves.  Yet  the  beauty  of  the 
place  is  so  remarkable,  and  the  medicinal  value  of  the 
waters  such,  they  warrant  a  prophesy  that  at  no  very 
distant  date  adequate  accommodations  will  make  a 
famous  resort  of  San  Vicente. 

A  stream  of  clear  sweet  water  runs  through  the  little 
valley.  Its  bank,  close  under  the  highest  mountain  of 
the  Gap,  is  a  camp  site  preferred  by  outing  parties 
from  Pinar  del  Rio  City,  and  from  distant  Havana  as 
well. 

The  road,  having  arrived  by  the  only  entrance, 
the  Gap,  leaves  the  vale  by  the  only  exit,  a  pass  on  its 


266  CUBA 

northern  side.  Once  outside,  it  skirts  the  hills  which 
inclose  the  vale,  and  then  turns  abruptly  toward  the 
coast.  It  takes  its  way  through  pine  lands  and  an  oak 
grove  hung  thick  with  aeroids,  to  San  Cayetano  village, 
—  a  cluster  of  huts  grouped  around  the  smoke-blackened 
shell  of  a  church  which  was  destroyed  toward  the  end 
of  the  last  Cuban  war  against  Spain.  From  here  the 
distance  is  short  to  the  port  of  Esperariza. 

Esperanza  (some  thirty  miles  in  all  from  Pinar)  lies 
on  a  flat  beach.  The  sea  here  is  quiet ;  what  force  its 
waves  might  have  is  spent  on  the  Colorado  Reefs  out- 
side. The  town  itself  is  without  interest.  The  only 
sights  to  see  are  the  rusted  hulks  of  two  abandoned 
locomotives. 

At  one  time  Esperanza  was  connected  with  Vinales 
by  way  of  a  very  narrow-gauge  railway,  built  to  handle 
freight  (tobacco  and  guano) ;  it  carried  only  what 
passengers  were  willing  to  negotiate  its  remarkable 
grades  and  turns  at  their  own  risk.  Plans  existed  to 
carry  it  through  the  San  Carlos  district  to  Guane.  In 
1895,  however,  the  big  storm  took  out  an  important 
bridge,  and  thereafter,  though  trains  ran  in  spite  of 
the  washout,  the  enterprise  went  rapidly  into  decay. 
War  took  possession  of  the  province,  and  the  company's 
rails  were  used  to  help  build  a  series  of  blockhouses 
across  the  country.  Around  these  fortlets  some  real 
fighting  was  done.  When  the  Americans  came  in,  in 
1898,  evidences  of  the  struggle,  consisting  of  empty 
cartridges  and  skeletons,  were  thick  enough  in  all  the 
vicinity  around  about  Pinar  del  Rio  City  itself  and 
Viiiales. 

Now,  however,  no  spot  in  Cuba  gives  more  evidence 
of  peace  and  prosperity.  Every  ox  in  the  region  is 
fat,  though  he  is  working  overtime,  and  even  on  Sun- 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

On  the  Bayamo-Manzanillo  Highway 

Stones  from  the  river  beds  used  in  macadamizing 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

On  the  line  of  the  Bayamo-Manzanillo  Highway 

Distress  the  new  road  has  relieved 


PhotoQraph  by  American  Photo  Company 
An  Or.n   T?,OAr>  ttm  TsroRTPr"WF;sTF/R7sr  Ptmar  r>Tr.T.  Rin    wnT?iM  P! at?t?t Amr«_ 


WEST    BY    BO  AD  267 

days  there  are  men,  women,  and  children  at  labor  in  the 
fields.  The  district  is  Cuba  as  Cuba  ought  to  be,  — 
industrious,  encouraged  by  every  prospect  of  substan- 
tial return  to  recompense  the  willing  labor  everybody 
is  expending  upon  the  fertile  fields.  The  government 
highway,  in  connecting  the  vicinity  with  the  railway, 
at  Pinar,  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  the  steamship  line 
to  Havana,  via  the  north  coast,  on  the  other,  has  given 
it  new  life.  It  presented  to  me,  when  we  passed  through, 
pictures  and  panoramas  that  return  to  my  mind  with 
remarkable  clarity  despite  some  time  that  has  elapsed 
since  I  was  there.  The  Vifiales  district  is,  to  me,  pre- 
eminently Pinar  del  Rio  ;  at  mention  of  that  province's 
name  I  do  not  think  of  any  section  the  railway  into  the 
west  traverses :  not  the  fruitlands  of  Artemisa,  the 
tobacco  lands  of  Alquizar,  the  abandoned  canefields, 
the  desolate  palm  barrens,  nor  the  citrus  fruit  groves  of 
hopeful  Americans  along  the  line;  I  see,  instead, 
Vifiales,  red-roofed,  quiescent,  low-lying  amid  its  care- 
fully cultivated  fields,  where  not  a  spot  remains  un- 
touched by  the  tobacco  grower's  hand,  —  at  peace 
beside  its  towering  mogotes,  among  which  winds  the 
cream-white  ribbon  of  the  road. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TOBACCO   IN   WESTERN   CUBA 

Whenever  a  "  priest  of  Partagas  "  "  opens  the  old  cigar  box  "  and 
gets  him  a  genuine  "  Cuba  stout  "  he  hfts  incense  to  this  one  partic- 
ular small  area  of  the  earth's  surface.  —  From  "Scenery  in  Cuba." 

''Happy/'  they  say,  '4s  the  country  which  has  no 
history/'  The  remark  is  apphcable  to  Pinar  del  Rio. 
It  was  settled,  though  sparsely,  for  two  hundred  years 
before  the  central  government  of  the  colony  of  Cuba 
took  cognizance  of  its  existence  or  supplied  it  with  a 
definite  name,  to  say  nothing  of  an  organized  govern- 
ment. Thereafter,  in  similar  unobtrusive  fashion,  it  con- 
tinued to  prosper  unobserved,  possibly  because  heroic 
events  elsewhere  in  the  island  held  general  attention 
continuously.  When  the  smoke  finally  cleared  away 
it  was  notable  that  the  five  other  provinces  were  in 
proud  possession  of  bloody  annals,  and  of  little  else; 
Pinar  del  Rio,  patriotic  protest  to  the  contrary  not 
availing,  is  lacking,  by  comparison,  in  those  martial 
records  mistakenly  accepted,  in  subtropical  America, 
as  constituting  the  magna  pars  of  history,  but,  in  recom- 
pense, she  has  intensely  cultivated  areas,  a  master  grip 
on  the  world's  tobacco  market,  and,  despite  the  recent 
blot  on  her  records,  a  reputation  for  tranquility  likely 
to  assist  toward  still  greater  prosperity  than  that  at 
present  enjoyed.  When  one  attempts,  however,  to 
trace  the  sequence  of  events  which  brought  about  the 
present  stage  of  the  west's  development,  one  is  almost 

268 


TOBACCO    IN    WESTERN    CUBA  269 

convinced  that  there  were  no  events;  that  Pinar  del 
Rio,  as  it  is  to-day,  Hke  Topsy,  '^jest  growed/' 

Pinar  del  Rio  was,  during  the  Spanish  regime,  proud 
of  her  reputation  for  loyalty  to  the  established  govern- 
ment, and  she  made  market  of  peace  preserved  in  the 
west.  She  drove  from  her  shores  Colombian  priva- 
teers who  first  attempted  to  ruffle  her  allegiance  to 
Spain.  Lopez,  the  leader  of  an  ill-starred  expedition 
which  sought  to  free  Cuba  in  1851,  was  betrayed  to 
government  soldiery  close  by  that  same  Rangel  I  have 
described  as  the  country  home  of  the  botanist,  Sau- 
valle.  The  Ten  Years'  War  did  not  disturb  the  west. 
In  1895-1896  Maceo  ordered  the  Invasion;  that  is, 
he  bade  the  bands  of  Cuban  revolutionists  then  in  the 
field  elsewhere,  to  rendezvous  in  Pinar  del  Rio,  where 
there  was  something  to  be  had  to  eat.  Despite  Spanish 
resistance,  his  ragged  companies  crossed  the  trochas, 
came  around  Havana,  and,  even  from  Santiago  and 
Camaguey,  they  arrived  within  the  province  of  Pinar. 
Out  of  Pinar,  refreshed  and  somewhat  reorganized, 
Maceo  was  leading  them  toward  Havana  itself  when  he 
was  killed  at  Punta  Brava,  in  Havana  Province,  within 
eighteen  miles  of  the  capital.  In  1906  Pino  Gucrra 
astonished  the  natives  by  initiating  in  Pinar  del  Rio 
Province  that  rebellion  against  President  Raima's  ad- 
ministration which  has  come  to  be  known  as  ^Hhe 
Little  War  of  August.''  It  occasioned  American  inter- 
vention in  the  form  of  the  Provisional  Administration 
of  Governor  Charles  E.  Magoon,  who  in  1908  turned 
the  republic  over  to  the  actual  president.  General  Jose 
Miguel  Gomez,  head  of  the  Liberal  party. 

In  the  world  at  large,  however,  Pinar  del  Rio  is  not 
renowned  on  account  of  any  of  these  events,  or  any 
others  of  similar  nature.     The  province  is  famous  in- 


270  CUBA 

stead  for  its  tobacco.  In  the  records  of  the  tobacco 
business  what  real  history  the  region  has  is  to  be  found. 

All  Cuban  tobacco  is  good  tobacco,  as  compared  with 
that  grown  elsewhere.  In  itself  it  is  divided  into 
infinite  variations  of  quality.  It  is  conceded  that  the 
best,  —  both  filler  and  wrapper,  —  grows  in  western 
Cuba,  particularly  in  Vuelta  Abajo  (pronounced 
Voo-el'-ta  Ah-bah'-ho). 

Why  one  small  particular  section  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face (Pinar  del  Rio  westward  from  Consolacion,  and 
especially  south  of  the  mountain  range)  should  produce 
the  very  finest  of  this  especial  crop  is  not  definitely 
known ;  but  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  excel- 
lence inheres,  not  in  plants  indigenous  or  acclimated, 
but  in  some  peculiar  combination  of  soil  and  climate 
prevailing  there.  Vuelta  Abajo  tobacco  removed  to 
other  sections  of  Cuba,  to  say  nothing  of  other  coun- 
tries (experiments  have  been  made  as  far  away  as  India), 
loses  its  distinguishing  qualities ;  whereas  other  to- 
baccos (Mexican  varieties  and  hybrids  used  to  replant 
western  vegas  when  the  original  Vuelta  Abajo  variety 
became  very  scarce  indeed  during  and  after  the  war) 
when  cultivated  in  this  vicinity  acquire  quality  not 
equaled  by  plants  of  identical  origin  matured  elsewhere. 

The  tobacco  districts  of  Pinar  del  Rio  are  compara- 
tively recent  developments.  Cuba  was  supplying 
Europe  with  tobacco  grown  in  regions  which  lie  within 
the  provinces  of  Havana,  Matanzas,  Santa  Clara, 
Camaguey,  and  Oriente,  long  before  western  leaf  was 
recognized.  Before  the  commencement  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  wherever  the  veguero  was  able  to  wrest 
half  a  chance  from  adverse  conditions  and  neighbors 
entirely  inimical  to  him,  the  little  patches  of  cultivated 
ground  which  were  his  vegas  had  made  their  appearance. 


TOBACCO    IN    WESTERN    CUBA  271 

in  central  and  eastern  Cuba,  along  the  banks  of  the* 
Guanabo  and  Canasi  rivers  on  the  north,  and  those  of         > 
the  Arimao,  Caracucey,  and  Agabama  on  the  south  side  y^ 
of  the  island.     By  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
tobacco  culture  was  the  principal  business  of  the  coun- 
try people  of  Cuba. 

Before  the  end  of  that  same  century  some  few  growers 
had  taken  up  more  or  less  permanent  habitation  among 
the  far  western  hills :  Pinar  del  Rio  had  not  yet  a 
name,  —  only  corsairs  knew  its  coasts,  and  few  save 
runaway  slaves  had  traveled  its  plains  or  penetrated 
the  highlands  of  its  northern  part.  These  scattered 
pioneers  fought  for  the  privilege  of  growing  their  crop. 
They  were  at  war  against  the  vested  rights  of  cattle- 
men who  held  title  to  the  west  country.  These  pro- 
prietors owned  land  granted  by  the  Crown  in  tremen- 
dous circles  the  centers  only  of  which  were  known; 
the  circumferences  were  undetermined.  Being  unable, 
to  prove  definitely  what  was  theirs,  the  cattlemen  in 
question  laid  claim  to  everything  in  sight.  Some- 
times they  permitted  the  vegueros  to  cultivate  the  banks 
of  streams  through  their  ranches ;  sometimes  they 
declined  to  do  so,  or  later,  being  compelled  by  law  to 
allow  it,  they  refused  to  permit  the  growers  to  cut  fence 
posts  on  their  land  (and  all  the  land  was  their  land), 
at  the  same  time  letting  their  stock  range  the  neigh- 
borhood, and,  incidentally,  trample  the  tobacco  down. 
If  a  veguero  resented  this,  and  killed  the  cattle,  he  was 
liable  to  the  ungentle  judgment  of  the  stockmen  them- 
selves. Vegueros  considered,  moreover,  that  the  cattle- 
men were  bound  to  allow  them  the  use  of  convenient 
parcels  of  ground  for  the  sowing  and  culture  of  seed- 
lings ;  the  cattlemen  held  that  it  was  their  option 
whether  they  should  grant  the  favor  or  not.     Some- 


272  CUBA 

times  they  generously  consented  to  the  use  of  land  for 
seedbeds,  but  saw  to  it  that  the  small  tracts  designated 
for  the  purpose  were  at  such  distances  from  the  ve- 
guero^s  home  he  could  not  properly  attend  to  them  at 
night.  Again,  proprietors  might  grant  everything 
asked  in  the  way  of  land  for  seedbeds  and  tobacco  fields, 
but  charge  the  grower  a  prohibitive  rent  for  other  land 
on  which  his  bohio  and  the  miserable  garden  where  he 
raised  his  foodstuffs  stood,  thus  making  his  existence 
impossible.  For  his  part,  the  veguero  retaliated  as 
best  he  could.  His  very  name  was  synonymous  with 
thief ;  he  plundered  his  neighbor's  chicken  coop,  caught 
his  hogs  as  they  wandered  in  the  woods,  and  slaughtered 
fat  calves,  no  matter  who  their  owner  might  be,  when- 
ever he  wanted  meat. 

At  war  on  land  with  all  his  surroundings,  and  espe- 
cially, in  spirit,  with  that  shadowy  and  distant  Author- 
ity to  which  they  appealed  who  oppressed  him,  to 
justify  their  conduct  toward  him,  the  western  veguero 
was  friendly  with  every  floating  representative  of  law- 
lessness on  the  high  seas.  Spain's  enemies,  —  who 
defied  Authority,  —  bent  on  rifling  her  colonial  mar- 
kets, pirates,  and  the  smugglers  who  succeeded  them, 
—  all  alike^  —  represented  to  the  tobacco  grower  in  the 
west  a  welcome  market.  Foreign  vessels,  and  vessels 
which  flew  no  flag  of  any  nation,  dropped  frequent  an- 
chors in  western  ports.  The  veguero,  far  from  assum- 
ing offensive  attitudes,  went  down  to  the  harbors,  — 
to  Pirate's  Lagoon,  for  instance,  —  to  greet  the  visitors, 
and,  in  all  friendliness,  delivered  to  them  in  exchange  for 
merchandise  or  cash,  tobacco  which,  reaching  Europe, 
aroused  the  admiration  of  connoisseurs  at  courts.  As 
may  be  deduced,  this  disposition  of  the  western  product 
aroused  also  the  indignation  of  the  Spanish  monarch, 


Photogravh  by  American  Photo' Company 

Shade-grown  Tobacco  Fields  at  San  Juan    y    Martinez,  Vuelta 

Abajo 


PfiotogravJi  by  American  Photo  Company 

A  Tobacco  Warehouse,  Havana 

The  tobacco  in  palm-leaf  covered  bales 


TOBACCO    IN    WESTERN    CUBA  273 

when  he  came  to  discover  that  his  trade  laws  were 
effectively  violated  ;  but  Spain  had  as  yet  no  force  in  the 
district,  since  become  the  Province  of  Pinar  del  Rio, 
sufficient  to  prevent  traffic  between  vegueros  and  ^^ for- 
eign pirates/'     Therefore  it  continued. 

In  other  parts  of  the  island,  where  Authority  was  a 
fact  and  not  a  fiction,  tobacco  culture  was  controlled, 
—  encouraged  now  by  a  ruling  in  favor  of  the  grower, 
hampered  next  by  a  restriction  laid  on  the  sale  of  what 
he  produced  under  that  very  encouragement.  In  the 
west,  however,  the  veguero  grew  tobacco  where  he 
could  and  sold  it  where  a  market  offered,  in  the  capital 
or  elsewhere,  all  with  fine  disregard  for  the  Spanish 
exchequer,  which,  endeavoring  to  wring  revenue  from 
it,  almost  choked  to  death  the  tobacco  business  else- 
where in  Cuba. 

In  the  year  1773  the  supply  of  tobacco  on  hand  in 
Spain  exceeded  the  demand,  —  apparently  for  the  first 
time.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  government  author- 
ities began  to  consider  quality  in  this  merchandise. 
Where,  previously,  they  had  been  ordering  only  to- 
bacco and  more  tobacco,  they  now  demanded  less 
tobacco,  but  a  better  quality.  The  moment  Spain's 
demand  was  for  the  best  tobacco  available,  it  developed 
that  the  finest  leaf  was  that  which  had  been  furnished 
in  small  lots  by  certain  isolated  growers  in  western 
Cuba  whose  fields  lay  along  the  banks  of  the  Cuya- 
guateje  River,  sixty  leagues  or  more  beyond  Havana, 
in  lonely,  neglected,  unpopulated  country,  nominally 
a  part  of  Havana's  jurisdiction,  but  still,  in  reality, 
without  government  at  all. 

Governor  de  la  Torre  resolved  to  found  a  town  out 
there,  in  the  furthest  west,  and  to  name  a  lieutenant 
governor  to  reside  in  it,  in  representation  of  his  author- 


// 


274  CUBA 

ity.  His  object  was  to  encourage  the  cultivation  of 
the  exquisite  tobacco  of  Vuelta  Abajo  (which  means, 
merely,  ^^down  country,'^  as  all  the  island  west  of 
Havana  was  indefinitely  designated),  by  placing  western 
vegueros  in  touch  with  the  civil  and  social  life  of  the  rest 
of  Cuba,  and,  by  ''protecting^'  them  from  their  friends, 
the  pirates,  to  secure  their  crop  to  the  government. 

In  1774  the  first  governor  of  the  newly  created  lieu- 
tenancy (he  was  Captain  Fernandez,  according  to  some 
historians)  went  into  the  west  to  establish  his  author- 
ity over  Nueva  Filipina  (as  the  territory  was  called) 
from  the  Palacios  River,  to  Cape  San  Antonio.  He 
discovered  that  he  had  no  need  to  found  a  town,  —  one 
almost  two  hundred  years  old  already  existed  within 
his  jurisdiction ;  he  had  merely  to  legalize  it  to  provide 
himself  with  a  capital,  and  this  he  proceeded  to  do  at 
once.     The  town  was  Guane. 

Guane  seems  to  have  been,  in  those  days,  of  an  am- 
bulatory disposition.  Its  first  location  was  the  Hato 
Guane  I  have  mentioned,  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  its 
present  site;  thence  it  moved  into  the  Acosta  Hills, 
from  where  it  traveled  to  Sansuefia,  and  next  to 
Barrancas,  finally  settling  down  to  stay  atop  its  ridge 
of  high  land  beside  the  Cuyaguateje  River. 

Originally,  persons  in  fifty  leagues  around  brought 
their  children  for  baptism  to  Guane's  church ;  there 
are  entries  dated  1604,  and  these  are  not  the  first  made, 
evidently.  Gradually  this  great  jurisdiction  (both 
civil  and  religious)  was  subdivided,  and  the  parishes 
of  Mantua,  Baja,  San  Juan  y  Martinez,  and  Pinar  del 
Rio  itself,  acquired  distinct  identities,  and  an  equipment 
of  officials  of  their  own. 

Just  as  it  was  tobacco  which  first  brought  organized 
government  into  the  Vuelta  Abajo,  in  1774,  so  it  was 


TOBACCO    IN     WESTERN    CUBA  275 

tobacco  in  the  Cabezas  de  Horacio  district  which 
caused  the  development  of  Mantua  (founded  about 
1716) ;  it  was  the  fact  that  their  lands  produced  the  best 
tobacco  of  all  which  changed  the  cattle  ranches  of  San 
Juan,  Martinez,  and  San  Luis  into  the  most  renowned 
plantations  under  cultivation  to-day ;  and  to  the 
volume  of  tobacco  business  transacted  there  the  city 
of  Pinar  del  Rio  (made  the  capital  of  Nueva  Filipina 
in  1810)  owes  its  importance,  solely.  Finally,  it  was 
the  traffic  offered  in  tobacco  which  drew  the  Western 
Railroad  from  Havana  to  Guane.  To  tobacco,  briefly, 
the  west  of  Cuba  owes  all. 

From  the  moment,  in  1774,  that  a  distinction  among 
good  tobaccos  was  drawn  in  favor  of  the  best,  the  rise 
of  Vuelta  Abajo  was  quick.  The  far  west  of  Cuba 
immediately  attained  a  supremacy  which  has  never 
since  been  questioned.  Tobacco  culture  throughout  the 
rest  of  the  island  has  regulated  itself  with  reference  to 
business  there.  In  districts  where  once  it  prevailed, 
tobacco  has  been  abandoned  (i.e,  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  Havana,  where  it  was  at  one  time 
prohibited  by  law) ;  in  others  where  it  has  not  hereto- 
fore been  known  it  is  even  now  developing,  thanks  to 
improved  transportation  facilities  {i.e.  in  the  center 
and  east  of  the  island).  In  Vuelta  Abajo,  however, 
production  has  been  uninterrupted  (save  during  one 
short  period  in  war  times,  1895-1898),  from  unchron- 
icled  years,  prior  to  1600,  to  date. 

Yet  the  industry,  even  in  this  heart  of  the  west,  has 
not  approached  the  maximum  of  its  possibilities. 

It  is  not  modernized.  Modernization,  in  this  par- 
ticular instance,  is  an  undertaking  to  be  approached 
with  considerable  care.  Americans  have  lost  fortunes 
because  of  unwise  haste  in  abandoning  what  they  con- 


276  CUBA 

sidered  antiquated  and  superstitious  methods  of  native 
growers.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  no  foreigners  succeed 
in  tobacco  culture  in  western  Cuba  unless  they  associate 
themselves  with  Cubans.  Cubans  are  expert  vegueros, 
—  or,  better  said,  —  expert  vegueros  are  Cubans. 
With  some,  even  field  hands,  culture  of  the  plant  has 
been  the  business  of  their  families  for  generations  out  of 
mind.  They  possess  an  art  which  has  hot  yet  been 
reduced  to  a  science.  Ask  him,  and  the  Vuelta  Abajo 
veguero  will  tell  you  that  he  knows  —  simply  knows  — 
where  to  plant  his  seedbed,  where  to  locate  his  vega, 
when  to  irrigate  and  when  to  cut ;  even  on  the  best 
plantations  it  is  largely  the  intuition  of  skilled  employees 
which  determines  when  a  pilon  shall  be  turned  over, 
what  temperature  shall  be  maintained,  and  when  the 
tobacco  in  each  pile  shall  be  selected  for  bundling  and 
baling.  Native  growers  are  unable  (and  possibly  a  bit 
unwilling)  to  tell  newcomers  precisely  what  indications 
guide  them  in  their  delicate  work. 

Yet  there  is  no  question  but  what  their  methods,  or 
perhaps  only  their  manner  of  executing  their  methods, 
can  be  improved  upon.  What  Americans  seek  to  do  is 
to  systematize  tobacco  culture,  to  distinguish  between 
essentials  and  nonessentials,  to  understand,  in  brief, 
just  what  the  Cuban  grower  does  and  why  he  does  it. 
What  he  does  must  be  learned  by  observation ;  why 
he  does  it^  he  himself  has  no  idea. 

The  necessity  of  fertilization,  for  instance,  is  an  axiom. 
Yet  the  fertilizer  is  applied  without  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  soil  it  enriches  ;  therefore  without  assurance 
that  the  particular  variety  used  is,  after  all,  what  is 
best.  There  is  evidence  that  this  ignorance  is  costing 
growers  dear.  Again,  irrigation  plants  in  modern  sense 
are  actually  a  novelty,  even  in  Vuelta  Abajo,  yet  tobacco 


TOBACCO    IN    WESTERN    CUBA  211 

has  been  irrigated  through  all  the  centuries.  To  this 
day  many  a  good  vega  is  supplied  by  hand  from  Standard 
Oil  cans  with  water  brought  from  creeks  on  drags  of  a 
pattern  Cain  must  have  originated.  So  accustomed 
are  they  to  this  method  that  many  native  planters  insist 
tobacco  can  be  properly  irrigated  in  absolutely  no  other 
fashion.  Experiments,  nevertheless,  are  being  made 
to  determine  whether  surface  irrigation,  by  ditching 
or  overhead  sprinkling,  or  subirrigation,  or  some  as 
yet  untried  combination  of  any  or  all,  may  not  prove 
cheaper  and  more  effective.  Some  native  planters  de- 
clare that  steel  implements  extract  the  virtue  from  to- 
bacco lands,  which  must,  therefore,  be  plowed  with 
wooden  plows ;  more  intelligent  growers  know  that  the 
trouble  lies  in  the  fact  that  American  plows  sometimes 
cut  too  deep,  turning  up  a  clay  from  the  bottom  which, 
mixed  with  even  the  best  top  soil,  will  ruin  a  vega. 
It  has  been  argued  that  to  use  draft  animals  in  a  tobacco 
field  was  impossible  ;  with  field  labor  in  Cuba  demanding 
a  wage  of  a  dollar  and  more  per  diem  !  Lately,  however, 
reports  are  coming  in  of  pronounced  success  with  patent 
transplanters,  hoes,  and  cultivators.  A  revolution  in 
means,  at  least,  if  not  ways,  is  imminent. 

One  may  therefore  with  little  danger  of  contradiction 
assert  that  despite  the  years  which  have  elapsed  since 
its  commencement,  despite  the  tremendous  commercial 
success  it  has  already  obtained,  the  business  of  growing 
tobacco  in  Cuba,  even  in  western  Cuba,  is  not  more  than 
well  begun.  Modern  implements,  intelligent  fertiliza- 
tion, and  scientific  irrigation  are  bound  to  increase 
quantity,  without  impairing  quality  in  the  least.  They 
will  also  make  the  crop  less  precarious  by  enabling  the 
grower  to  control  conditions.  Improved  transportation 
facilities  are  daily  enlarging  the  possible  field  area. 


278  CUBA 

There  are  lands  in  Pinar  del  Rio  Province  to  this  day- 
untouched,  which  would,  in  time,  with  proper  care, 
yield  the  very  best  returns.  Capital,  not  unmindful 
of  the  opportunity,  is  providing  the  last  requisite,  the 
ready  cash.  Three  hundred  years  of  development  are 
only  the  prelude,  the  barest  introduction,  to  the  story 
of  tobacco  in  Cuba,  —  to  the  history  of  Pinar  del  Rio, 
which  I  have  not  in  my  desultory  reading  found 
fully  written  anywhere,^  perhaps,  now  that  I  come 
to  think  of  it,  because  it  has  not  yet  transpired. 

1  For  information  concerning  tobacco  in  Cuba,  especially  in  the 
west,  the  author  is  indebted  to  Pezuela's  history  of  the  island. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    ISLE    OF   PINES 

...  A  spot  endowed  by  the  hand  of  Providence  with  so  many- 
blessings,  willfully  denied  to  her  by  men  incapable  of  correct  judg- 
ment, who  may,  fortuitously,  in  the  coiu-se  of  time,  stand  in  need  of 
her  favors.  —  Dr.  Jose  de  la  Luz  Hernandez,  in  his  "Memoir  on  the 
Salubrity  of  the  Isle  of  Pines"  (1857). 

It  is  possible  that  in  the  beginning  Cuba  was  two 
islands,  —  that  a  prehistoric  sea  inundated  its  leveler 
portions,  between  the  highlands  of  Pinar  del  Rio  and 
those  of  Oriente.  If  so,  it  is  probable  that  the  Isle  of 
Pines  was  then  an  integral  portion  of  the  western  divi- 
sion. Perhaps  the  very  upheaval  which  elevated  regions 
that  are  now  the  provinces  of  Havana,  Matanzas,  Santa 
Clara,  and  Camaguey,  lowered  the  ocean  bed  to  the 
southwest,  thus  making  the  Isle  an  isle,  situated  as  it 
is  to-day,  at  a  distance  of  some  fifty  miles  from  Cuba, 
due  south  of  this  island's  narrowest  part.  Its  surround- 
ing waters  are  the  Caribbean  Sea,  pleasant  as  an  inland 
lake,  and  still  variegated  in  color  as  they  were  in  that 
June  of  long  ago  (1494)  when  Columbus'  inexperienced 
sailors  (the  first  Europeans  to  venture  there)  grew 
alarmed  to  see  an  ocean  now  green,  now  white,  and 
again  dark  as  though  ink  had  been  spilled  into  it.  They 
had  not  before  navigated  a  sea  so  shallow  that  the  color 
of  its  bottom  showed  through.  An  elevation  of  less  than 
fifty  feet  in  the  ocean  bed  would  reestablish  land  connec- 
tion between  Cuba  and  the  Isle.     Even  the  specially 

279 


280  CUBA 

constructed  light-draft  steamers  which  ply  between 
Batabano  and  its  ports  stir  the  sands  in  passing.  There 
is  a  channel,  and  they  follow  it,  among  shoals  and  man- 
grove keys  ;  to  err  is  to  spend  hours  aground,  as  we  did, 
because  we  essayed  to  go  around  a  dredger  anchored  in 
the  right  o'  way.  Apprised  of  our  predicament  (by 
way  of  our  indignant  comments  shouted  across),  the 
crew  of  the  dredger  poled  a  lighter  alongside  and  helped 
remove  a  little  of  our  cargo.  So,  lessened  in  weight,  we 
floated,  regained  the  channel,  took  back  our  cargo,  and 
proceeded  on  our  way. 

The  area  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  is  estimated  at  nine 
hundred  thousand  acres.  Of  these  perhaps  three 
hundred  thousand  are  south  of  Lanier  Swamp,  a  marsh 
some  fourteen  miles  long,  varying  in  width  from  one 
mile  to  three,  which,,  stretching  straight  from  an  indenta- 
tion on  the  east  side  of  the  Isle  called  Boca  de  Cienaga, 
to  Siguanea  Bay  upon  the  west,  separates  what  is  locally 
designated  as  ^Hhe  South  Coast  ^'  from  the  better 
known  northern  portion.  Only  a  very  narrow  strip 
of  coral  rock,  they  say,  submerged  ten  months  in  the 
year,  joins  the  two  component  sections  of  the  island. 

I  was  told  that  the  South  Coast  is  a  true  tropical 
wilderness.  There  Nature  set  the  stage  for  dramas  of 
piracy  and  smuggling.  It  is  supposed  to  be  the  real 
shore  of  ^^ Treasure  Island. ''  Stevenson,  it  is  claimed, 
once  visited  the  Isle  of  Pines ;  I  have  not  been  able  to 
verify  this  statement,  and  I  doubt  it.  Approached 
from  the  sea,  that  is,  from  the  south,  the  South  Coast 
is-  a  ledge  of  rock,  running  parallel  with  a  sandy  beach 
that  varies  from  no  width  to  a  mile  or  more.  In  some 
parts  the  ledge  is  missing  for  a  considerable  distance ; 
elsewhere  channels  lead  through  it  here  and  there  into 
coves,  some  protected  from  the  full  force  of  the  sea 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  281 

by  coral  reefs  awash,  past  which,  in  best  of  weather, 
experienced  pilots  venture  to  bring  in  the  light-draft 
schooners  entering  to  load  hard  wood,  particularly 
tobacco  poles,  for  sale  in  neighboring  ports  of  Cuba 
proper,  especially  in  those  of  Pinar  del  Rio  Province.  A 
dim  trail  parallel  to  the  coast,  impassable  for  animals 
and  difficult  for  man,  leads  over  treacherous  seboruco, 
from  settlement  to  settlement ;  for  people  reside  here. 
They  are  mulatto  and  black  natives  of  the  Caiman 
Isles,  those  three  dots  of  land  accidentally  dropped  into 
the  sea  to  the  southward,  and  forgotten  by  all  save 
England,  who  keeps  a  governor  there. 

The  more  I  heard  of  the  South  Coast,  the  more  deter- 
mined was  I  to  see  its  terrors  face  to  face.  I  listened 
with -interest  to  tales  of  schooners  becalmed  or  driven 
upon  its  secret  reefs :  none  equaled  the  reality  of  the 
more  recent  wreck  of  the  steamer  Nicolas  Castano^ 
which,  thrown  ashore  in  a  cyclone,  seems  to  have  ex- 
ploded, scattering  the  naked  bodies  of  her  crew  over  sea 
and  land.  I  was  not  diverted  from  my  resolution  even 
by  statements  that  there  was  nothing  whatsoever  to. 
eat  there.  I  had  read  that  Captain  Tirry,  inspired  like 
myself  with  a  great  desire  to  see,  had  found,  as  early 
as  1797,  five  brave  men  willing  to  accompany  him : 
two  to  show  the  way  and  three  to  kill  opposing  croco- 
diles. I  opined  that  their  equals  in  valor  might  be  dis- 
covered, even  in  these  degenerate  days.  The  nearer, 
however,  that  we  approached  to  the  fearful  region,  the 
less,  to  our  disappointment,  did  its  dangers  appear. 
At  Los.  Indios,  the  most  westerly  American  colony,  we 
found  persons  quite  willing  to  accommodate  us,  — to 
run  across  to  the  South  Coast  on  a  day^s  picnic. 
Grandfather  Symes  shouldered  the  baby ;  Mrs.  Symes 
took  the  littlest  boy  by  the  hand ;   a  six-foot  Kansan, 


282  CUBA 

keen  for  adventure  as  could  be,  carried  the  lunch  bas- 
ket; Mr.  Brown  provided  the  launch,  and  the  cap- 
tain thereof  headed  her  downstream,  on  the  black 
and  sullen  Indios  River,  sluggish  between  its  mangrove 
banks.  At  the  bar  a  multitude  of  gray  waves  leaped  at 
us,  tossed  us  hither  and  yon,  finally  persuading  us, 
much  against  our  inclination,  to  delay  our  voyage  until 
the  bay  should  present  itself  in  pleasanter  mood. 
The  following  morning,  early,  we  set  forth  again, 
and,  emerging  from  the  stream,  found  the  waters  in 
good  humor.  The  air  was  clear.  We  could  discern  the 
furthest  shores,  where,  especially  among  the  distant 
Siguanea  Mountains,  light  mists  lay. 

Siguanea  Bay  is  formed  by  the  west  extremity  of  the 
South  Coast,  which  projects  like  a  beckoning  finger. 
We  approached  its  inner  curve,  making  our  way  carefully, 
for  it  was  shoal  water  among  keys.  Arrived  as  close 
in  as  he  thought  safe,  the  captain  anchored  the  launch, 
obligingly  j  umped  overboard,  waded  ashore,  and  returned 
with  a  rowboat  he  found  by  a  little  pier,  along  which, 
evidently,  when  it  was  in  condition,  logs  had  been  rail- 
roaded from  land  to  lighters,  I  presume.  In  this  rowboat 
we  made  our  way  to  shore,  in  detachments,  and,  reas- 
sembled, we  advanced  up  the  road.  There  were  thick 
woods  on  both  sides,  but  little  enough  resemblance  did 
they  bear  to  the  deep  and  dreadful  jungle  I  had  keenly 
anticipated.  My  ideals  in  this  direction  have  been 
more  nearly  realized  since,  in  Oriente,  where,  there 
being  no  snakes  in  Cuba,  long  and  wriggling  tendrils  of 
vines,  hanging  pendent,  furnish  the  illusion,  anyhow : 
the  presence  of  snakes  and  monkeys  is,  it  seems  to  me, 
imperative  in  a  real  jungle.  Here  on  the  South  Coast 
there  was  neither  :  not  even  a  parrot  flashed  his  bright 
feathers,  —  it  being  out  of  season.     The  forest  was,  in 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  283 

brief,  a  disappointment ;  we  were  not  wholly  consoled 
by  the  few  towering  cedars  we  saw,  nor  those  other  trees 
flourishing  in  the  rich  scant  soil  which  we  were  fain  to 
believe  were  mahogany.  Having  tramped  about  two 
miles,  we  arrived  before  a  shack;  beside  it  a  happy 
hibiscus  lifted  great  flaming  cups  of  bloom.  The  shack 
was  alive,  —  with  chickens,  ants,  and  fleas  ;  its  human 
habitants  were,  we  could  deduce,  further  up  the  road, 
with  a  mule  team,  logging.  We  fled  to  the  open  road, 
and  followed  on.  It  was  a  very  good  wagon  road. 
Suddenly,  as  we  mounted  rising  ground,  a  cool  wind 
fanned  us,  and  we  knew  that  we  were  nearing  the 
southern  shore,  having  crossed  from  coast  to  coast 
of  the  peninsula  which,  as  I  have  said,  embraces  Si- 
guanea  Bay. 

We  found  the  sea  at  Caleta  Grande.  It  licks  the  rocks 
and  the  sand  around  that  cove,  hungrily  in  the  finest 
weather.  In  a  storm,  it  must  thunder  in,  with  a  savage 
roar,  across  the  bar  on  which,  even  in  a  calm,  the  blue 
waves  reared  white  crests.  A  schooner  was  gathering 
in  timber  with  feverish  haste,  making  the  best  of  favor- 
ing wind  and  tide. 

Along  the  beach,  separated  from  each  other  by  un- 
sociable distances,  there  were  gray  and  weather-worn 
frame  houses.  There  was  no  sign  of  life  about  them, 
nor  any  sound  audible  above  the  pleasant  murmur 
of  the  sea. 

We  entered  the  store.  A  native  mulatto  woman 
welcomed  us,  in  English ;  she  had  the  British  intonation, 
but  the  words  were  blurred,  like  her  features,  by  the 
African  in  her.  She  invited  us  to  be  seated;  there 
were  not  chairs  enough  to  go  around,  so  we  sat  also  on 
boxes,  and  on  the  idle  counter.  There  was  nothing 
whatsoever  on  the  shelves,  to  sell.     The  woman  offered 


284  CUBA 

us  tea,  and  brewed  it  from  the  leaves  of  the  wild  lemon. 
She  said,  with  pitiable  embarrassment,  that  she  wished 
to  make  us  biscuits,  but  there  was  no  flour.  Honey, 
to  accompany  the  biscuits,  she  had.  By  the  door  bees, 
with  worried  bumblings,  were  lamenting  their  loss,  as 
it  dripped,  rich  and  yellow,  from  overcrowded  hives. 
There  was  no  sale  for  the  honey ;  she  could  not  eat  it  all. 
She  supposed  the  bees  would  leave,  presently.  Ad- 
joining the  storeroom  where  we  sat  was  the  woman's  bed- 
room. Drapery  on  the  two  beds  it  contained  was  tied 
back  with  strips  of  pink  sateen,  like  ribbons.  There 
were  pink-flowered  curtains  before  boxes  nailed  up  on 
the  walls  to  serve  as  cupboards  and  shelves.  On  the 
improvised  dresser  I  noticed  cheap  fancy-headed 
hatpins  in  a  pink  cushion.  On  the  wall,  in  a  great 
gilded  frame,  was  a  crayon  portrait  of  a  man,  obviously 
an  American,  with  an  American  woman,  his  wife,  and 
their  children.  We  stared  at  it  in  astonishment,  and 
she  saw  us  look  from  that  group  to  her.  She  had 
gathered  up  from  the  bed,  where  it  had  awakened  with 
a  querulous  complaint,  a  httle  child  she  now  let  slip 
from  her  arms,  to  the  floor ;  there  it  stood,  surveying 
us  through  questioning  eyes,  one  of  which  was  hideously 
swollen  and  discolored,  with  an  ulcer.  He,  the  mother 
said,  had  left  three  months  before,  with  a  schooner 
load  of  lumber,  for  Batabano.  She  made  no  com- 
plaint, save  to  shrug  her  shoulders  at  our  reassurance 
that,  of  course,  he  would  return.  She  looked  from 
one  to  the  other  of  us  intently,  as  a  stray  dog  looks, 
hunting  a  master.  Her  eyes  stayed  on  the  Kansan, 
and  he  got  up  and  sought  the  door.  '^It  is  the  jump- 
ing-off  place,''  said  I,  to  create  a  diversion.  '^And 
some  of  'em  that  jumped,  Ut  hard,  God  help  'em," 
said  he. 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  285 

We  filed  out,  and  she  stood  looking  after  us.  Ere 
we  rounded  a  turn  in  the  path  she  called,  and  came 
running  to  ask  whether  or  not  we  would  take  her  in 
the  launch  across  to  Los  Indios,  where  she  had  heard 
there  was  scullery  work  to  be  had,  in  the  hotel.  We 
promised. 

We  clambered  over  the  seboruco;  it  is  water- worn 
Umestone,  full  of  holes  and  pricked  with  sharp  points, 
ready  on  slight  provocation  to  skin  a  shin,  twist  an  ankle, 
or  break  a  leg.  We  sat  down  under  a  tree,  and  inquired 
of  each  other  where  in  this  particular  vicinity  the 
loggers  and  their  precious  mule  team  might  be.  They 
had  returned,  we  learned,  for  the  camp,  and  so,  there 
being  no  remedy  for  it,  we  again  set  our  faces  in  that 
direction.  All  roads  seemed  to  lead  that  way,  for- 
tunately, and,  in  time,  we  arrived  at  the  shack  we  had 
passed  hours  before,  —  hot,  red  to  bursting,  dirty,  and 
famished  for  the  lunch  we  had  left.  We  found  the 
loggers,  in  charge  of  Mr.  Symes  II  and  his  son,  Symes 
III,  with  whom  we  had  our  meal.  My  mother  and  I, 
however,  escaped  as  quickly  as  we  might  with  what 
skin  the  fleas  had  left  whole.  We  sped  over  the  last 
two  miles.  We  hallooed,  the  captain  appeared  with 
the  rowboat,  took  us  to  the  launch,  and  then,  at  our 
invitation,  rowed  himself  back  to  shore  and  disap- 
peared inland.  We  hastily  cast  aside  our  clothes, 
and  plunged  into  the  water,  on  the  seaward  side 
of  the  boat.  Strange  fishes  came  up  and  commented 
upon  us.  Marine  plants  tickled  our  toes.  I  gathered 
shells  from  the  bottom.  We  were  hardly  clad  before 
shouting  ashore  warned  us  that  the  rest  of  the  party  were 
at  hand.  We  arrived  in  Los  Indios  at  sunset,  little  the 
worse  for  wear.  We  had  ''footed  if  for  fifteen  miles 
or  so  over  the  formidable  South  Coast  in  the  blistering 


286  CUBA 

month  of  May :  three  women,  a  babe  in  arms,  a  little 
boy,  an  old  man  and  a  young  one  ! 

The  South  Coast  woman  did  not  accompany  us 
home.  One  of  the  loggers  said  that  he  passed  her, 
struggling  along  the  road  to  port,  with  a  bundle  and  the 
child.  Another  had  seen  her  coming  on  an  oxcart 
whose  driver  she  had  persuaded  to  ^^give  her  a  lift.'' 
Yet  we  left  her,  —  to  make  the  journey  back  again,  in 
disappointment,  to  the  house  that  even  the  bees  were 
to  abandon  in  its  desolation,  presently. 

The  topography  of  the  northern  half  of  the  Isle  of 
Pines,  —  the  six  hundred  thousand  acres  constituting 
the  Isle  proper,  —  is  simple.  It  consists  essentially 
of  a  plain,  now  almost  perfectly  level,  now  rolling  in 
undulations  that  rarely  reach  thirty  feet  above  the 
general  elevation  of  75  to  125  feet  above  tide.  Along  the 
seashore  is  a  coastal  fringe  of  beach  sand  and  mangrove 
swamps,  varying  in  width  from  a  few  feet  to  five  miles, 
and  in  elevation  from  tide  level  to  ten  or  fifteen  feet 
above.  This  fringe  is  practically  continuous  about  the 
Isle,  in  its  northern  part,  save  where  two  headlands  — 
Punta  de  Colombo  and  Punta  de  la  Bibijagua  —  pro- 
ject into  the  sea. 

Rising  abruptly  from  this  general  plain  are  a  few 
isolated  ridges,  —  mountains,  by  courtesy.  The  most 
important  of  these  are  the  Sierra  de  las  Casas,  west  of 
Nueva  Gerona,  height  estimated  at  nine  hundred  and 
forty-five  feet;  Sierra  de  Caballos,  east  of  the  town, 
height,  estimated,  nine  hundred  and  eighty-one  feet; 
Sierra  de  la  Daguilla,  in  the  southeast,  and  Sierra  de  la 
Canada,  approximate  height  fifteen  hundred  and  seven 
feet,  in  the  west.  These  ridges  are  entirely  due  to 
differential  erosion,  being  composed  of  more  resisting 
rocks  than  those  which  underlie  the  surrounding  plains. 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  287 

Their  contours  vary ;  some  are  smooth,  while  others  are 
rugged,  with  precipitous  slopes. 

Casas  and  Caballos  (and  possibly  other  mountains  in 
the  Isle  not  yet  so  carefully  examined)  are  composed  of 
crystalline  marble.  They  constitute  the  most  important 
mineral  resource  of  the  Isle.  There  are  in  Caballos 
beds  of  fine  white  statuary  marble,  and  others  of  in- 
ferior grades  also  commercially  valuable  for  interior 
finishing  and  outdoor  work.  The  colors  vary  from  pure 
white  to  dark  gray,  and  in  some  cases  there  is  a  strongly 
marked  banding.  Both  the  coarse  and  the  fine-grained 
stone  appear  to  be  remarkably  free  from  cracks  and 
flaws ;  slabs  of  any  dimension  could  doubtless  be  ob- 
tained. There  are  beds  from  five  to  twenty  feet  in  thick- 
ness, so  that  the  size  of  the  block  to  be  quarried  would  be 
limited  only  by  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  wanted. 
The  conditions  for  quarrying  are  exceptionally  favor- 
able. No  stripping  or  other  dead  work  would  be  re- 
quired. Channeling  machinery  could  be  used,  and  the 
rock  worked  in  horizontal  courses,  if  desired.  Nothing, 
however,  is  at  present  being  done,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  transportation  expenses  between  the  beds  and 
possible  sale  in  Havana  are  more  than  similar  expenses 
between  Italy  and  the  same  market. 

In  1834  the  French  chemist  and  geologist,  M.  Chueaux, 
exploring  the  West  Indies  in  search  of  gold,  was  at- 
tracted to  the  Isle  of  Pines  by  reports  that  buccaneers 
had  mines  of  the  desirable  metal  there.  He  discovered 
the  composition  of  Mount  Caballos,  and  appreciated  its 
value.  The  ridge  as  it  stood,  —  honeycombed  with 
curious  caverns,  only  partially  explored,  and  draped 
with  tropical  vegetation  in  interesting  variety,  except 
where,  near  its  western  summit,  there  is  a  sheer  cliff 
about  a  hundred  feet  in  height,  —  looked  to  him  more 


288  CUBA 

like  a  gold  mine  than  anything  else  he  found.  He 
abandoned  further  search.  He  secured  from  the 
Spanish  government  the  privilege  of  establishing  and 
operating  a  quarry ;  he  obtained  a  grant  of  land  con- 
trolling the  Brazo  Fuerte  stream,  less  than  a  mile  in 
length,  which  gushes  from  the  Mount,  running  swiftly 
to  join  the  Casas  River.  He  began  work;  oxcarts 
hauled  his  rough-hewn  blocks  to  waiting  schooners. 
In  leisure  moments  M.  Chueaux  planted  flowers  around 
his  residence  at  Brazo  Fuerte,  and  while  botanizing 
came  upon  what  he  took  to  be  a  vein  of  gold-bearing 
quartz.  He  went  to  Havana  to  denounce  his  claim,  and 
died  there  of  yellow  fever.  His  quarries,  his  machinery, 
and  his  tropical  garden  stood  neglected  until  five  years 
later,  when,  in  1844,  Captain-General  O'Donnell,  Gov- 
ernor of  Cuba,  bought  the  place.  He  formed  a  com- 
pany to  exploit  the  property.  A  great  mill  was  erected 
at  the  quarries ;  it  was  equipped  with  American 
machinery.  Elaborate  quarters  were  provided  for  the 
superintendent,  —  for  the  guards,  —  for  the  prisoners 
from  the  Gerona  penal  settlement,  who  were  to  do  the 
work  at  a  wage  of  ten  cents  per  diem,  payable  to  their 
keeper.  A  limekiln  was  put  up  to  burn  the  refuse, 
and  extensive  docks  were  built  on  Colombo  Bay.  The 
first  block  of  marble  Captain-General  O'DonnelFs  com- 
pany cut  was  wrought  into  a  baptismal  font,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  parish  church  at  Nueva  Gerona.  Just 
as  business  began  to  move  pleasantly  the  Captain- 
GeneraVs  opponents  in  Spain  induced  that  government 
to  impose  a  tax  on  the  sea  sand  to  which  he  was  helping 
himself  for  cutting  purposes;  and  the  company  col- 
lapsed in  1849.  Some  years  later  Major  Sarda,  a  noted 
Spanish  engineer,  acquired  Mount  Caballos,  Brazo 
Fuerte,  and  Colombo  Bay.    He  did  not  continue  work  in 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Casas  River 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  289 

the  marble  quarry ;  its  machinery  was  left  to  rust  and 
ruin  under  the  rank  overgrowth  of  tropical  vegetation. 
Instead,  he  made  bricks  and  tiles.  Terraces  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nueva  Gerona,  at  an  altitude  of  about  fifty 
feet  above  the  tide,  are  covered  with  red  and  gray  sandy 
clay  from  which  with  proper  manipulation  a  fairly  good 
quality  of  brick  might  still  be  had.  Sarda^s  tiles 
floored  Morro  Castle,  and  were  found  acceptable  for 
use  in  the  public  market  building  of  Havana.  Hard 
times,  however,  becoming  harder  and  harder  as  Cuba 
wore  to  its  outcome  her  long-drawn  fight  with  Spain, 
completely  paralyzed  the  Brazo  Fuerte  brick  and  tile 
yard,  and  also  the  tannery  located  there. 

In  1901  the  marble  mountain,  its  wrecked  machinery, 
the  tile  molds  and  the  tanning  vats,  all  passed  from  the 
possession  of  Major  Sarda^s  widow  and  children  to  that 
of  Mr.  T.  J.  Keenan,  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  who  has 
erected  at  Brazo  Fuerte  one  of  the  handsomest  winter 
homes  on  the  Isle  of  Pines.  We  approached  it  early  on  a 
pleasant  morning,  and  were  admitted  from  a  porch  heav- 
ily shaded  with  a  magnificent  flowering  creeper,  which 
has,  I  know,  a  proper  Latin  name,  forgotten,  however, 
in  favor  of  its  local  designation,  ^'Keenan's  blue  vine.'' 
In  building  the  house,  old  walls  found  standing  were 
used ;  it  has  given  the  residence  a  rambling  plan  that  is 
charming.  Details  I  have  let  fall  from  memory,  save 
that  the  sun  shone  brightly  through  shrubs  and  vines 
without,  into  softly  curtained  windows.  Daintiness  was 
in  the  dining  room.  There  were  handsome  stairways 
of  polished  hardwoods.  We  were  shown  the  immediate 
grounds,  somewhat  of  the  citrus  fruit  grove,  and  the 
bath,  —  a  swimming  pool  built  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  house.  We  bore  away  flowers,  information, 
and  the  commencement  of  a  highly  prized  acquaintance. 


290  CUBA 

The  marble  beds  of  Mount  Casas  across  the  Casas 
Valley  from  Caballos  have  not  been  more  than  sampled. 
Of  the  composition  of  the  Daguilla  Mountains  and  the 
Canada  Mountains  no  repor,t  is  at  hand,  such  as  Ameri- 
can government  geologists  have  furnished  on  Casas  and 
Caballos.  In  the  Sierra  de  la  Siguanea,  where  Lanier 
Swamp  meets  Siguanea  Bay,  in  the  southwest,  siliceous 
schist  containing  very  pure  brown  hematite  is  found. 
Masses  of  this  ore  are  scattered  over  the  surface  in  con- 
siderable abundance,  but  no  veins  of  workable  size  have 
been  reported  yet.  In  some  places  (Santa  Fe  and  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Mai  Pais  River)  there  are  deposits  of 
manganese  ore  which  may,  in  time,  prove  valuable. 

Around  the  mountains  stretch  those  leveler  reaches 
which  constitute  the  general  plain  of  the  country.  Here, 
in  groups  and  thinly  scattered,  are  pine  trees,  charac- 
teristic of  the  temperate  zone,  but  here  growing  side 
by  side  with  the  commoner  palms  of  the  tropics ;  from 
these  pine  trees  the  Isle  got  its  present  name,  which  has 
replaced  the  title  —  Isle  of  the  Evangelist  —  origi- 
nally bestowed  upon  it.  According  to  the  quality  of  the 
soil  which  supports  them  these  conifers  vary  in  size 
from  merest  saplings  to  trees  of  girth  sufficient  to  make 
them  worth  a  sawmill's  while.  In  fertile  places  — 
along  lowlands  watered  by  creeks,  and  at  the  foot  of 
mountain  ridges  —  are  royal  palms,  in  clusters  and 
rows,  adding  to  the  landscape  the  beauty  of  proud  white 
trunks  and  crests  of  deep  green  plumes.  In  the 
shadow  of  the  monarch  and  of  the  neighboring  pines, 
grow  palmettos,  dwarf  palms,  manaca,  and,  I  think, 
'^bottle  palms,''  with  still  other  members  of  that  numer- 
ous family,  differing  yet  resembling  each  other  in  pecul- 
iarities. There  are  shrubs  everywhere,  the  scrawniest  of 
which  bloom,  white  and  yellow,  thereby  redeeming  a 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  291 

certain  gauntness  evident  in  them,  as  in  all  the  flora  of 
the  Isle  of  Pines. 

The  streams,  few  of  which  deserve  the  name  river, 
flow  in  broad  shallow  depressions  with  very  gentle 
slopes.  Their  channels  are  sharp  cut,  from  five  to 
fifteen  feet  in  depth.  These  channels  fill  when  the 
streams  are  in  flood  ;  during  the  dry  season  (November 
to  May,  approximately)  their  flow  dwindles  and  some 
go  dry.  Few  if  any  of  the  streams  have  flood  plains. 
They  usually  reach  tide  level  some  distance  from  the 
coast,  and  toward  the  mouth  they  are  deep.  Navigation 
is  usually  impeded,  —  at  present  prevented  except  in 
Jiicaro,  Casas,  and  Indios  River,  —  by  a  bar  formed 
of  sediment  deposited  where  their  waters  meet  the  in- 
beating  sea.  There  are  native  fruit  trees  along  the 
streams,  especially  mangos,  hung  thick  with  fruits ; 
there  are  caimitos,  zapotes,  wild  orange  trees,  —  though 
their  presence  together  in  any  number  indicates  almost 
infallibly  the  site  of  some  homestead  of  former  times, 
of  which,  perhaps,  no  other  trace  remains.  Wild  bam- 
boo fringes  the  water  courses.  Picturesque  aeroids 
drape  the  sturdier  trees,  in  damp  places.  In  the 
north  of  the  island  there  are,  along  the  creeks,  choice 
hard  woods,  suitable  for  finest  interior  finishing  and 
furniture,  for  which  purposes  they  are  skillfully  em- 
ployed by  American  settlers. 

As  to  fauna,  the  Cuban  scientist  Poey  convinced 
himself  that  the  Isle  of  Pines  is  part  of  one  zoological 
region  with  Cuba  proper  and  the  Bahamas.  The  native 
land  bird  varieties  are  computed  at  203,  of  which  about 
115  are  resident  and  the  rest  migratory  between  North 
and  South  America.  Among  the  commoner  birds  are 
thrushes,  humming  birds,  cuckoos,  owls,  little  birds 
of  the  brilliant  family  of  Tanagridse,  and  Trogonidse, 


292  CUBA 

fond  of  forests.  The  green  pigeon  is  no  longer  seen. 
In  June  and  July  the  woods  are  full  of  parrots,  red  and 
green  in  plumage.  They  are  caught  young  and  exported ; 
they  can  be  trained  to  talk,  though  they  are  not  the 
most  loquacious  variety.'  Reptiles  are  scarce,  and 
what  there  are  are  harmless.  Crocodiles  in  the  rivers 
afford  good  hunting.  There  are  spiders  and  scorpions ; 
their  bite  is  little  more  painful  than  a  bee  sting,  and  is 
attended  by  no  more  serious  consequences.  There  are 
ants  in  multitudes :  the  bibijagua  troubles  the  citrus 
fruit  grower,  while  the  smaller  varieties  pester  his  wife, 
as  flies  do  in  the  north,  until  she  learns  to  rout  them 
from  her  larder.  The  fresh  waters  of  the  Isle  contain 
few  varieties  of  fish,  none  of  commercial  importance; 
there  are  tortoises  and  turtles  on  the  coasts.  The  land 
shells  are  numerous  in  design  and  variety,  but  generally 
without  value  for  ornament  or  utility.  Isle  butterflies 
are  of  little  scientific  interest.  There  are  thirteen  sorts 
of  dragon  flies,  some  of  beautiful  metallic  luster.  As  a 
whole,  the  fauna  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  is  small,  but  par- 
ticularly interesting  for  the  lack  of  orders  characteristic 
of  the  continents  to  north  and  south,  notably  monkeys, 
Edentata,  and  the  Carnivora.  The  settler  is  truly  grate- 
ful for  the  happy  absence  here,  as  in  all  Cuba,  of  really  • 
noxious  creatures. 

His  worst  enemy  is  the  diminutive  sand  fly,  —  the 
hateful  ^-hay-hen,''  as  he  pronounces  its  Spanish  name, 
Jejen,  Some  persons  never  become  immune  to  the  bite 
of  this  insect,  small  and  colored  like  a  tiny  speck  of  ash  ; 
it  lays  hold  like  a  live  coal  and  hangs  on  to  be  killed 
where  it  bites.  A  few  fortunates  are  not  molested,  — 
among  them  I  have  noted  especially  children  born  on  the 
Isle.  I  have  frequently  suspected  that  the  immunity 
of  their  elders  was  feigned,  particularly  when,  even 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  293 

while  assuring  me  that  jejenes  are  scarce  and  harmless, 
the  speaker  was  industriously  rubbing  his  ears,  neck, 
ankles,  and  wrists.  There  is  no  defense  against  them : 
they  bite  through  sheets,  I  know  by  burning  experience  ; 
they  bite  through  stockings,  lisle  gloves,  and  waists, 
—  it  is  their  particular  delight  to  frolic  in  and  out 
through  lace  insertion,  tattooing  its  patterns  on  the 
wincing  flesh  below.  Residents  on  the  Isle  endeavor 
to  screen  them  out  of  their  houses,  using  wire  netting  of 
finest  mesh,  or  cloth,  in  the  windows  instead  of  glass. 
Such  windows,  found  everywhere  on  the  Isle,  are  evi- 
dence of  the  universal  prevalance  in  every  section  of 
'Hhe  pest,''  as  natives  call  jejenes.  Yet  at  McKinley 
I  have  been  solemnly  assured  there  are  none,  except  at 
Los  Indios ;  while  enduring  agonies  at  Nueva  Gerona 
I  have  been  consoled  to  hear  that  they  are  much  worse 
at  Santa  Fe.  Santa  Fe,  in  its  turn,  claims  exemption, 
while  Los  Indios  excuses  the  undeniable  presence  of 
sand  flies  there  by  telling  the  truth,  —  they  are  every- 
where on  the  Isle.  They  are  worse  in  the  rainy  season 
toward  sunset  and  by  moonlight  in  windless  places. 
Each  time  that  I  have  returned  from  the  Isle  of  Pines, 
I  have  come  minus  as  much  skin  as  though  I  had  fur- 
nished material  for  extensive  experiments  in  grafting. 
But,  I  hasten  to  add,  I  have  been  just  as  badly  used  in 
Cuba,  —  for  sand  flies  feast  on  the  unwary  traveler  in 
these  latitudes  whenever  he  loiters  along  the  seacoast, 
on  sandy  beaches,  where  thick  settlement  has  not  yet 
driven  out  the  ^^ hay-hen''  to  make  room  for  the  festive 
flea.  The  jejen  is  obviously  indigenous ;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  say  the  Spaniards  brought  fleas  to  Cuba  in 
their  ships  along  with  themselves  and  their  dogs. 

Christopher  Columbus  discovered  the  Isle  of  Pines 
in  June,  1494.     In  search  of  provisions  and  water,  he 


294  CUBA 

visited  a  port,  presumably  on  the  north  coast,  ob- 
tained what  he  could,  named  the  place  Isle  of  the  Evan- 
gehst,  and  from  there  retraced  his  way  along  the  south 
coast  of  Cuba,  through  the  Gardens  of  the  Queen,  to 
Santo  Domingo. 

He  saw  little  or  nothing  of  the  aboriginal  Indian 
population.  It  is  supposed  that  the  people  were  one 
tribe.  The  Indian  name  of  the  Isle  seems  to  have  been 
Garmaraco.  Indications  are  that  as  Spanish  settle- 
ment advanced  from  north  and  east,  the  natives  re- 
treated south  and  west ;  they  left  no  reminders  save 
a  curious  well  at  Brazo  Fuerte,  some  bones  in  the  caves 
of  Gasas,  and  a  name,  Los  Indios,  —  ^'the  Indians,^'  — 
used  yet  to  designate  a  tract  of  land,  a  river,  and  certain 
keys  down  by  Siguanea  Bay. 

Before  1600,  Spaniards,  arriving  from  Guba,  had  es- 
tablished themselves  on  the  Isle  of  Pines.  There  was 
travel  between  the  two  islands.  In  1596,  Drake,  on 
one  of  his  marauding  expeditions,  descended  on  the  Isle, 
demolished  their  huts  along  the  seashore,  and  massacred 
the  inhabitants  with  the  exception  of  a  few  who  escaped 
to  Guba,  to  tell  their  story  to  D.  Juan  Maldonado 
Malnueva,  the  Gaptain-General,  who,  incensed  at  this 
invasion  of  his  domain  by  English,  prepared  an  expedi- 
tion to  punish  the  invaders.  Meanwhile,  Drake  got 
away.  For  some  time  thereafter  no  further  attempt 
at  colonization  was  made.  Though  fishermen  from 
Guba  visited  the  Isle  now  and  then,  it  was  better  known 
for  many  a  long  year  to  pirates  of  the  Spanish  Main  than 
it  was  to  any  representative  of  Their  Most  Gatholic 
Majesties,  in  whose  name  the  First  Admiral  took  posses- 
sion of  it.  The  worst  of  the  cosmopolitan  pack  that 
harried  the  seas  in  those  days,  —  Morgan,  the  English- 
man, and  Peg-Leg  Jols,  —  followed  by  all  the  hetero- 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  295 

geneous  crew  that  emulated  their  supremacy  in  robbery, 
rapine,  and  murder,  made  the  Isle  of  Pines  a  rendezvous. 
They  alone  knew  the  shoals  and  deeps  of  those  treach- 
erous waters.  In  the  inlets  and  up  the  hidden  quiet 
rivers  they  anchored,  awaiting  opportune  time  to  sally 
forth  on  the  plate  fleets  of  Spain  as  these  came  forward 
from  Cartagena  and  from  Mexico.  Lacking  treasure 
ships,  they  fell  upon  the  few  merchantmen  who  ven- 
tured to  ply  between  coast  ports ;  or,  times  being  very 
dull  indeed,  they  traded  for  tobacco  in  Vuelta  Abajo, 
and  smuggled  it  home  to  Europe.  Or,  again,  in  the  Isle 
of  Pines  they  assembled  forces,  laid  in  wood,  and  or- 
ganized to  raid  the  thriftiest  settlements  in  the  Indies, 
—  Santiago,  Puerto  Principe,  Sancti  Spiritus,  Vera 
Cruz,  —  even  Cartagena  itself,  Panama,  and  Havana. 
From  Spanish  galleons,  under  armed  escort  though  they 
sailed,  these  marauders  took  silver  and  gold  in  coin  and 
bars ;  from  the  defenseless  residents  in  colonial  towns 
they  took  cash  and  jewelry  and  whatever  else  pleased 
their  robber  fancy.  The  booty  was  sometimes  brought 
to  the  Isle  for  division.  Undoubtedly,  too,  it  was 
sometimes  buried  here  for  safe  keeping  ;  but  if  it  has  not 
been  all  dug  up  long  ago,  it  is  not  because  romantic  and 
credulous  persons  have  not  searched  diligently  for  caches. 
In  May,  1908,  an  old  chest  which  was,  in  appearance, 
all  that  a  treasure  chest  ought  to  be,  was  lying  on  the 
sands  of  Bibijagua  Beach.  No  one  knew  its  origin. 
Questions  concerning  it  brought  up  reminiscences  of  an 
American,  supposed  to  possess  a  secret  and  a  map,  who 
loafed  about  the  Isle,  left,  returned,  and  disappeared 
into  the  interior,  only  to  reappear  later  with  no  ex- 
planation of  a  deposit  amounting,  if  I  remember  rightly, 
to  some  two  thousand  dollars,  he  made  at  the  Nueva 
Gerona  bank  in  old  gold  coins. 


296  CUBA 

In  1630,  the  Isle  of  Pines  was  presented  by  royal 
grant  to  Captain  D.  Hernando  Pedroso,  from  whom 
by  inheritance  it  passed  on,  becoming  in  1706  the 
property  of  two  brothers,  D.  Nicolas  and  D.  Francisco 
Duarte.  When  D.  Francisco  died,  in  1727,  D.  Nicolas 
purchased  his  share  in  the  Isle  from  the  widow,  and 
thus  it  came  once  more  into  the  possession  of  a  single 
individual. 

In  1728,  this  sole  owner  commissioned  the  French 
expert,  M.  Gelabert,  who  had  already  established  one 
for  D.  Francisco  on  the  South  Coast,  to  build  up  two 
more  big  cattle  ranches  in  the  southeast  of  the  northern 
section ;  they  were  the  haciendas  San  Juan  and  Santa 
Fe.  These  names  and  others,  like  Calabaza,  El  Hospi- 
tal, Las  Piedras,  Santa  Rosalia,  Santa  Barbara  de  las 
Nuevas,  La  Caiiada,  which  belonged  to  early  ranches, 
still  appear  on  modern  maps,  to  designate  districts 
approximately  the  same,  and,  sometimes,  also  the 
American  land  companies  that  are  now  reselling  the 
tracts.  4t  the  same  time  D.  Nicolas  ordered  D. 
Francisco  Abella  to  organize  five  other  plantations  in 
the  north  and  northeast.  In  short,  the  Isle  was  divided 
by  its  owner  into  seven  great  cattle  ranches.  In  1760, 
D.  Nicolas  Duarte  having  died,  these  seven  properties 
were  distributed,  one  to  each  of  his  seven  sons.  The 
South  Coast  and  whatever  land  was  not  specifically 
included  within  their  boundaries  was  held  pro  indiviso. 

In  1763,  one  of  these  inheritors,  D.  Francisco  Javier 
Duarte,  was  named  first  capitan  a  guerra  of  the  Isle  of 
Pines ;  he  received  his  appointment  from  the  Count 
de  Ricla,  then  Captain-General  of  Cuba.  Later  he 
resigned  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  D.  Domingo 
Duarte.  In  1765  he,  too,  withdrew,  and  D.  Andres 
Acosta  y  Duarte  was  named  captain  in  his  stead. 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  297 

It  appears  that  these  early  governors  labored  in  vain 
to  secure  from  the  State  authority  to  bring  over  immi- 
grants, and,  from  the  Church,  to  obtain  a  parish  church 
for  the  Isle.  The  secular  authorities  in  Havana  evi- 
dently concluded  that  the  less  there  was  in  the  Isle  the 
less  inviting  it  would  seem  to  enemies  from  whom  they 
did  not  protect  it ;  the  spiritual  authorities,  at  Quivi- 
can,  within  whose  jurisdiction  it  was,  likewise  declined 
to  do  much  on  behalf  of  the  stray  sheep  there,  nomi- 
nally of  their  fold.  In  1789,  however,  a  church  build- 
ing was  erected  beside  Almacigos  Spring,  almost  in  the 
center  of  the  island.  Magnificent  mango  trees  mark 
its  site,  now  part  of  a  citrus  fruit  plantation  of  Ameri- 
cans. 

In  1773  the  Marquis  de  la  Torre,  Captain-General 
of  Cuba,  by  decree  ordered  the  district  to  contribute 
annually  a  certain  number  of  cattle  for  the  public 
supply  of  Havana.  This  was  the  first  taxation  exacted 
from  the  Isle  of  Pines. 

In  1792  the  English  captured  a  ship  en  route  from 
Cartagena  to  Batabano  aboard  which  was  D.  Dionisio 
Franco,  former  secretary  of  the  viceroy  of  Lima ;  they 
set  him  ashore  on  the  Isle  of  Pines  on  March  6,  and 
there  he  sojourned  until  April  15  of  that  same  year,  — 
a  little  over  a  month,  —  time  he  employed  in  studying 
the  country,  on  which  he  prepared  an  interesting  re- 
port. It  was  published  in  1847  in  the  annals  of  the 
Economic  Society  of  Friends  of  the  Country.  It  is 
not  stated  to  whom  the  report  was  made,  and  the  general 
tone  of  it  indicates,  it  seems  to  me,  that  it  was  written 
for  his  own  pleasure.  The  document  is,  apparently, 
little  known  except  as  Captain  Tirry  presented  it  five 
years  later  as  his  own. 

Franco  listed  the  mountains  and  streams  and  ports ; 


298  CUBA 

hills  and  rivers  bore  then  the  names  by  which  they  are 
known  to-day.  What  traffic  there  was  made  use  of  the 
Santa  Fe  (Jucaro)  and  the  Casas  rivers,  as  it  does  at 
present,  and  of  the  Nuevas  River,  as  it  may  again  to- 
^  morrow.  The  careless  raising  of  cattle  and  hogs  was  the 
sole  legitimate  occupation  of  the  few  residents.  These 
residents  numbered,  according  to  his  count,  just  86 
persons,  of  whom  55  were  men,  16  women,  and  15 
children ;  66  of  the  total  were  white,  14  were  black, 
and  6  were  mulattoes ;  72  were  free  and  14  were  slaves. 
They  were  scattered  among  the  twenty  ranches  then 
in  existence,  twelve  of  which  belonged  to  the  Duarte 
family,  six  to  the  Zelaver  family,  and  two  to  the  Zayas 
family.  They  lived  at  their  leisure.  The  boundaries  of 
the  various  estates  were  merely  nominal.  The  live 
stock  was  rounded  up  only  when  need  of  real  money 
compelled  owners  to  the  exertion  of  exportation.  There 
was  little  profit  in  either  tasajo  (jerked  beef)  or  beef  on 
the  hoof.  Meanwhile,  it  was  pleasant  to  sit  in  the  shade 
of  trees  that  grew,  and  produced  fruit,  without  making 
any  demand  on  a  gentleman^s  attention ;  and  it  was  but 
hospitable  to  share  that  shade  with  whatever  visitor  ap- 
peared. 

The  visitors  appeared,  unexpectedly,  and  went  as  they 
came.  They  happened  in  from  Jamaica  and  Grand 
Cayman,  and  they  crossed  from  Cuba.  They  did  not 
always  advertise  the  reasons  that  had  accelerated  their 
departure  from  the  land  of  their  previous  abode.  The 
y  Isle  of  Pines  was  headquarters  of  outlawry,  the  refuge 
of  ^^  thieves  by  land  and  by  sea.  '^  Between  these  tran- 
sients and  the  resident  pinero  who,  in  his  isolation,  ac- 
cepted the  pleasure  of  their  company,  the  authorities 
in  Havana  were  unable  to  make  distinction.  There- 
fore they  classed  all  alike  in  their  bad  opinion ;   and  to 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  299 

this  day,  against  all  reason,  the  idea  persists  that  the 
people  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  are  necessarily  (by  nature  or 
by  acclimation)  a  lawless  and  a  turbulent  lot. 

In  the  years  between  1775  and  1780,  the  population 
of  the  Isle  reached  a  total  of  200  ;  of  these  some  75  were 
honestly  employed,  and  the  rest  were  fugitives,  vaga- 
bonds, and  smugglers,  —  men  who  had  committed  of- 
fenses more  or  less  serious  against  the  laws,  especially 
of  Cuba,  and  who  fled  to  the  Isle,  where,  safe  from 
justice,  they  tramped  from  ranch  to  ranch,  fished  some- 
times, or  shipped  on  the  first  smugglers'  craft  they  found 
busied  between  the  Isle  and  British  possessions.  Later, 
perhaps,  when  they  had  money  or  thought  their  mis- 
demeanors forgotten,  they  returned  whence  they  had 
come. 

When  the  Excelentisimo  Sr.  D.  Luis  de  las  Casas 
took  over  the  government  of  Cuba,  he  authorized  D. 
Andres  Acosta,  then  governor  of  the  Isle,  to  round  up  the 
vagabonds  and  fugitives  at  large  in  his  jurisdiction. 
Accordingly  a  few  idlers  were  sent  back  to  Havana, 
where,  presumably,  they  fared  ill;  for  suddenly  the 
population  dwindled  to  76  persons,  —  land  owners, 
overseers,  their  families,  employees,  some  slaves,  and 
one  or  two  convalescents  who  were  there  for  their  health. 
These  were  the  76  inhabitants  Captain  Juan  Tirry 
classified  in  his  report  in  1797 :  36  white  men  and  18 
white  women,  4  black  men  and  4  black  women; 
60  of  whom  were  free  and  16  slaves.  These  76  (ten 
less  in  legitimate  population  than  Franco  found  five  years 
before)  still  lived  along  on  jerked  beef,  taking  but  slowly 
to  even  the  little  cultivation  of  the  soil  necessary  to 
supply  their  own  simplest  needs  in  vegetables  and  fruits. 

Captain  Tirry  visited  the  Isle  of  Pines  in  1797,  on 
royal  order  issued  the  year  before,  his  mission  being  to 


300  CUBA 

discover  whether  or  not  the  pine  trees  there  could  be 
used  for  masts,  and  whether  pitch  and  resin  might  be  had 
to  supply  the  arsenals  of  Spain.  He  reported  adversely 
on  both  points,  the  cost  of  transportation  especially 
being  prohibitive. 

Tirry,  accompanied  by  two  guides,  traveled  around 
the  Isle  in  a  canoe,  dropping  anchor  at  night.  He  ex- 
amined the  shores,  rivers,  and  inlets.  The  South  Coast 
interested  him  especially,  yet  he  did  not  examine  it 
thoroughly.  He  saw,  however,  where  the  English  had 
removed  great  trees  of  valuable  hard  woods.  He  mar- 
veled that  the  scant  soil  could  support  such  luxuriant 
plant  life.  He  found  a  single  inhabitant,  —  ^^an 
European,'^  —  at  Punta  del  Este.  Returning  to  the 
northern  half  of  the  Isle,  he  spent  twenty-eight  days  in 
visiting  its  twenty-four  estates.  He  summed  up  his 
conclusions:  ^'The  country  is  worthy  development; 
it  is  suitable  to  agriculture,  but  needs  population,  the 
attention  of  the  Church,  and  the  help  of  the  State  for 
its  defense.  It  could  be  put  in  a  position  to  defend 
itself  with  little  expense,  were  the  State  to  aid,  cooperat- 
ing for  its  advancement.  The  cattle  industry  could 
shortly  be  made  four  times  what  it  is.  If  assistance  is 
not  forthcoming,  however,  island,  inhabitants,  and 
herds  are  doomed  to  decadence  and  to  a  state  of  misery 
and  desolation  even  worse  than  that  which  at  present  ex- 
ists. Tortoise  fishing,  tobacco  culture,  and  exportation 
of  hard  woods  are  three  lines  of  industry  I  believe 
could  be  made  profitable ;  they  would  increase  in  im- 
portance. ...  It  would  indeed  be  a  pity  to  leave 
desolate  an  Isle  that  has  rivers  to  water  its  fields,  which 
are  so  suitable  for  cultivation ;  that  has  coasts  for  rich 
fishery;  that  with  so  little  assistance  could  be  made 
so  highly  profitable.     For  ...  in   general  .  .  .''    he 


rnotograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

An  American  Residence  in  the  Isle  of  Pines 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Colombo  Bay,  where  Columbus  is  Supposed  to  have  Landed 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  301 

adds,  ^Hhe  soil  of  the  Isle  is  easy  to  cultivate,  though 
there  are  some  areas  on  the  plains  which  are  in  truth 
quite  useless.  .  .  .  The  flanks  of  the  mountains  and 
the  river  banks  present  the  very  best  of  soil.  Here, 
on  estates  commonly  called  vegas,  they  raise  all  kinds 
of  produce,  cane,  coffee,  and  especially  tobacco.  Ex- 
perience certainly  shows  that  tobacco  grown  on  the 
Isle  along  the  rivers  is  of  excellent  quality,  equal  to  that 
of  Vuelta  Abajo,  so  celebrated  for  its  fragrance  and  the 
aromatic  flavor  it  retains  after  manufacture.  The 
two  haciendas  of  Jagua  and  the  four  ^possessions' 
of  Las  Nuevas  contain  exceedingly  good  land.  In  some 
sections  there  is  a  high-grade  black  soil ;  in  others  there 
are  areas  of  mulata  soil  of  as  good  quality,  —  and  all  alike 
mutely  complain  of  the  neglect  of  owners ;  they  await 
cultivation  in  order  to  produce.  ^'  Tirry  suggested  that 
the  king  might  find  profit  in  experimenting  with  tobacco 
himself  in  the  Isle  of  Pines  ;  incidentally,  his  patronage 
would  tend  to  attract  population,  and  to  awaken  an 
interest  in  agriculture,  —  improvements  His  Majesty 
desired  at  the  time. 

Yet  years  went  by,  and  conditions  in  the  Isle  bettered 
very  little  if  it  all.  The  British  reaped  more  advantage 
from  its  existence  than  did  the  Spanish.  Mahogany 
and  cedar  logs  continued  to  disappear  from  the  South 
Coast,  —  stumps  were  the  only  record  of  their  going. 
Small  schooners,  fitted  with  everything  necessary  for 
tortoise  and  turtle  fishing,  came  up  from  Grand  Cay- 
man or  crossed  from  Jamaica,  to  spread  nets  all  along  the 
Isle,  east,  south,  and  west,  from  Punta  del  Este  to  Indian 
Keys.  These  poaching  mulattoes  and  blacks  (fisher- 
men by  their  own  profession,  pirates  and  wreckers  by 
the  accusation  of  their  victims)  knew  those  coasts  far 
better  than  the  Spaniards  themselves.     Their  descend- 


v/ 


302  CUBA 

ants  —  residents  on  the  South  Coast  —  are  to  this 
day  the  best  pilots  for  any  expedition,  no  matter  what 
its  nature,  in  this  vicinity.  They  knew  where  to  look 
for  their  game,  how  to  catch  it,  and  how  to  dispose  of  it 
to  the  best  advantage.  The  English,  Tirry  complained, 
^4n  fifteen  days  catch  more  than  all  the  Spaniards  to- 
gether in  a  year.''  Also  they  knew  how  to  turn  any 
leisure  they  might  have  to  good  advantage  ;  their  craft 
carried  small  cannon,  and,  while  they  waited  for  their 
nets  to  fill,  they  sometimes  held  up  coasting  vessels, 
helped  themselves  to  the  wreckage  of  any  ships  they 
might  be  fortunate  enough  to  find  in  distress,  and, 
when  they  ran  short  of  provisions,  they  put  into  the 
nearest  Isle  port  and  took  their  fill  from  the  neighbor- 
ing ranches.  In  October,  1797,  according  to  Captain 
Tirry,  a  tortoise  fishing  schooner,  armed  with  a  single 
gun,  and  manned  by  25  mulattoes  and  blacks  (with 
45  live  turtles  aboard  and  tortoise  shells)  captured  two 
boats  laden  with  tobacco,  from  Bayamo  ;  they  put  into 
the  Casas  River,  went  to  the  ranch  near  by,  and  took 
what  fresh  meat  they  wanted.  They  also  captured  what 
craft  they  found  in  the  harbor  there.  They  willfully 
shot  cattle  along  their  route  to  and  from  the  ranch  house. 
As  late  as  1826  this  sort  of  thing  was  still  going  on. 
The  people  of  the  Isle  were  unarmed,  and  Havana  had 
no  firearms  to  spare  them  when  they  appealed  there  for 
help. 

In  1826,  when  the  government  made  official  investi- 
gation into  reasons  why  Cuba,  and  especially  the  Isle 
.of  Pines,  ^4ts  accessory,''  were  not  settling  up  with 
whites  as  rapidly  as  events  transpiring  in  Hayti  made 
appear  desirable,  Sr.  D.  Hipolito  Odoardo  Grand-Pre, 
in  reporting,  gave  the  misconduct  of  these  English 
marauders  as  the  prime  reason  for  the  Isle's  delay  in 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  303 

development.  Agriculture  could  not  be  expected  to 
thrive  in  a  district  boundaries  of  which  were  no  obstacle 
to  pirate  raids ;  the  interior  settlements  themselves 
were  not  safe.  Development  was  further  retarded  by 
the  fact  that  legal  transfers  of  land  could  hardly  be 
made.  ^'I'U  have  a  lawsuit  on  you/'  was,  he  says, 
the  favorite  menace  of  the  time.  Persons  who  were 
'4and  poor''  had  difficulty  in  getting  rid  of  any  part  of 
their  unwieldy  holdings  ;  other  persons  who  might  have 
cultivated  small  holdings  could  get  possession  of  none. 
Odoardo  charged  the  people,  moreover,  with  a  disincli- 
nation to  work  and  push  forward.  In  conclusion  he 
recommended,  first,  that  land  titles  be  straightened 
out ;  the  final  clearing  of  these  and  accurate  survey 
of  tracts  are  two  great  benefits  American  land  com- 
panies have  conferred  on  the  Isle.  Titles  there  are,  for 
Cuba,  exceptionally  good.  He  recommended  that  a 
garrison  be  established  at  Nueva  Gerona;  the  Isle 
would  then  command  the  southern  coast  of  Cuba, 
^^from  the  Laguna  de  Cortes  to  the  Ensenada  de 
Cochinos. "  An  unpublished  report  made  in  1908  to 
the  American  government  suggests,  I  believe,  that  the 
Isle  might  wisely  be  made  an  American  military  reserva- 
tion, for  this  same  reason.  Odoardo  suggested  that  as 
many  prisoners  as  could  be  safely  managed  be  sent  across 
to  the  Isle  to  clear  land,  open  roads,  and  cultivate  the 
soil.  He  urged  that  all  facilities  be  granted  immigrants, 
—  such  as  cheap  land  and  exemption  from  taxation. 
His  recommendations  were  followed  largely. 

Almost  immediately  (1826)  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cle- 
mente  Delgado  y  Espaiia  was  sent  over  with  the  title 
of  commander-in-chief  of  the  Isle  and  director  (jefe) 
of  the  Colony  Queen  Amalia.  He  traveled  around  and 
over  the  Isle  he  had  come  to  govern.     In  his  party  were 


304  CUBA 

an  adjutant,  a  corporal,  six  men,  and  Dr.  D.  Jos6 
Labadia.  Delgado  made  reports  to  the  government,  of 
which  I  have  seen  extracts  only;  I  gather,  however, 
that  he  formed  a  very  poor  opinion  of  the  people.  Ac- 
customed as  they  were  to  going  their  own  gait,  they  re- 
sented, he  declares,  his  gentle  administration  of  justice, 
and  complained  before  they  were  molested  thereby. 
Dr.  Labadia  presented  the  Captain-General  with  ^^A 
Topographic  Description  of  the  Isle  of  Pines. '' 

Delgado  and  Labadia  were  the  first  to  make  anything 
like  a  throrough  examination  of  the  South  Coast.  They 
found  the  swamp  which  divides  the  Isle  into  two  parts 
(Cienaga  de  Lanier,  so  named  a  few  years  later  for 
Lieutenant  D.  Ale  jo  Helvecio  Lanier,  public  surveyor, 
who  made  a  map  of  the  Isle)  to  be  much  smaller  than 
had  been  supposed;  Labadia  intimates  that  exagger- 
ation of  its  extent  had  been  intentional.  They  went 
inland  from  Carapachivas,  and  found  that  the  rocky 
formation  called  seboruco  gives  place  shortly  to  excellent 
soil,  supporting  an  astonishing  wealth  of  vegetable  life. 
^^  Never  did  Nature  make  more  luxuriant  display  of 
herself  !  .  .  .  The  dilfficulty  with  which  one  arrives  in 
the  interior  can  be  the  only  origin  of  the  prevailing  mis- 
taken opinion  of  the  nature  of  the  place.''  Labadia 
described  the  mountain  slopes  and  the  river  banks  as 
fertile;  but  condemned  the  plains  between  as  sandy, 
arid,  covered  with  spindling  pines  and  skeleton  shrubs. 
He  could  see  no  good  in  them ;  even  the  cattle,  he  com- 
plained, found  little  pasturage  there,  and  were  lean. 
He  declared  that  the  Isle  might  he  made  to  produce 
three  times  the  rice  that  Cuba  then  consumed.  He 
remarked  that  fig  trees  bore  good  fruit,  as  he  and  Colonel 
Delgado  had  the  pleasure  of  proving  by  experience  on 
one  of  D.  Andres  Acosta's  estates;    he  deduced  that 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  305 

viticulture  would  prosper.  ^^I  believe  that  an  in- 
finite number  of  products  of  Europe  not  common  in 
Cuba  might  be  cultivated  to  great  advantage  on  the  Isle 
of  Pines.''  ''The  soil  is/'  he  stated,  ''of  superior  qual- 
ity though  arid ;  but  the  miserablest  settler  can  with 
very  little  effort  irrigate  his  lands  and  thus  make  sure 
of  the  fruits  of  his  labor."  He  complained  against 
absentee  landlords,  and  repeated  charges  of  laziness 
against  the  residents.  "What  a  pity  it  is  to  see  these 
handsome  fields  given  over  merely  to  a  languishing  cat- 
tle industry,  when  Nature  has  bestowed  on  the  Isle 
every  advantage  in  the  way  of  fertility ;  watered  as  it  is 
by  twelve  principal  rivers  and  thirty-seven  tributary 
streams,  it  awaits  only  man's  hand  to  bring  forth  its 
riches.  These  lands  ask  at  least  that  the  occupants 
cultivate  them  enough  to  produce  their  own  sustenance." 
Labadia,  further,  called  attention  to  the  Isle's  possibil- 
ities in  exportation  of  hard  woods,  tannery,  and  marble, 
in  addition  to  agriculture  —  especially  cacao.  He  sent 
samples  from  the  marble  beds  in  Casas  and  Caballos,  to 
Havana.  He  recommended  granite  from  "Columbo" 
for  the  paving  of  Havana.  He  surmised  that  there  was 
iron  in  the  west. 

The  year  following  (1827)  Colonel  Clemente  Delgado 
founded  the  town  of  Nueva  Gerona  on  112  caballerias 
of  land  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Casas  River,  donated 
by  D.  Andres  Acosta  for  the  purpose.  He  gave  it  the 
name  it  bears,  because  at  the  original  Gerona,  General 
Vives,  then  Captain-General  of  Cuba,  from  whom 
Delgado  had  his  commission,  had  won  laurels.  The 
first  inhabitants  of  the  town  were  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Delgado,  Dr.  Labadia,  twelve  private  soldiers,  one 
artilleryman,  a  corporal,  and  fourteen  chain-gang 
prisoners,  —  the  first  of  the  "enforced  exiles"  Spain 


306  CUBA 

continued  to  banish  to  the  Isle  as  long  as  she  owned  it. 
Their  equipment  was  a  small  cannon,  some  ammuni- 
tion, and  the  implements  necessary  to  fell  trees  and 
prepare  the  cleared  land  for  the  establishment  of  the 
nascent  capital.  The  first  buildings  in  Nueva  Gerona 
were  four  large  halls  of  mixed  clay  and  palm  leaves, 
'Hhe  first  being  appropriated  to  the  commander  and 
his  oflficers,  who  were  the  adjutant  and  the  doctor; 
in  the  second  the  troops  were  lodged;  the  third  was 
designed  as  a  prison  for  the  chain-gang ;  and  the  fourth 
served  as  a  general  store.''  These  buildings  were 
given  pretentious  names,  —  Vatican  and  Quirinal,  for 
instance,  —  ^Hheir  humble  architecture  contrasting 
strangely  with  the  monumental  structures  which  were 
the  pride  of  proud  Rome  !'' 

The  site  of  Nueva  Gerona  was  chosen  because  it  is 
readily  reached  via  the  Casas  River.  Moreover, 
Casas  Mountain  was,  at  that  time,  a  pirate  haunt,  and 
Delgado  proposed  to  oust  the  buccaneers.  ^^It  would 
not  have  been  easy  to  watch  them  from  the  old  village 
of  Santa  Fe.''  Despite  the  lieutenant-coloners  activity 
against  pirates,  and  the  growth  of  his  town^^some  fear 
still  existed  on  account  of  the  pertinacity  of  the  priva- 
teers, who  once  captured  the  commander  himself  !'' 

Nueva  Gerona  is  now  the  largest  and  the  liveliest 
town  on  the  Isle.  It  is,  in  appearance,  a  typical  Cuban 
municipal  capital.  Its  streets  are  wide,  fairly  well  kept, 
and  clean.  Along  them  stand  bright-colored  houses, 
red-roofed,  with  porticos  under  which  pedestrians  pass 
as  on  a  sidewalk,  which,  in  fact,  their  pavements  are. 
The  windows  are  barred  as  though  each  house  were  a 
prison ;  women  and  girls  idle  at  these  gratings,  and 
little  naked  babies  play  in  and  out  of  the  open  doors. 
Beyond,  in  sunny  courts,  are  plants,  in  tubs  painted 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  307 

red  or  green.  There  is  a  cuartel  (barracks),  —  the 
same  that  was  built  early  for  the  first  garrison.  It  has 
round  corners,  and,  when  I  first  saw  it,  was  painted  a 
delicate  canary  yellow.  It  was  in  the  possession  then  of 
a  detachment  of  United  States  marines,  representing  the 
authority  of  the  American  Provisional  Administration. 
They  had,  too,  temporary  barracks  near  by,  and  I 
recall  that  the  afternoon  we  walked  out  in  that  direc- 
tion half  a  dozen  husky  privates  in  scant  attire  and 
excellent  form  were  sprinting  up  and  down  the  road 
before  a  small  assemblage  of  spectators,  —  natives 
who  marveled  at  the  incomprehensible  conduct  of 
yanquis  thus  exerting  themselves,  for  no  apparent 
reason,  in  sun  and  heat.  The  boys  were  preparing 
for  a  Fourth  of  July  Field  Day  at  Camp  Columbia. 
The  barracks  house  now  a  detachment  of  Cuban  rural 
guards.  I  don't  know  who  occupies  the  little  bungalow 
on  the  veranda  of  which  the  lieutenant  and  the  lieuten- 
ant's wife,  her  friend  from  Mexico,  and  the  doctor  whose 
commission  was  in  the  navy  (a  very  superior  branch  of 
the  service,  his  ^^ striker''  bragged),  the  local  banker, 
the  banker's  wife,  and  my  mother  and  I,  spent  a  pleas- 
ant evening.  The  lamp  shone  pink  on  the  tiny  table 
where  later  the  coffee  machine  was  set  to  shine  and 
bubble.  We  nibbled  British  ^^ biscuits"  brought  forth 
from  square  tins,  and  talked  of  I  don't  know  what, 
for  we  were  assembled  from  the  four  quarters  of  crea- 
tion on  slight  acquaintance,  and  to  the  four  quarters  we 
have  scattered  again.  At  the  other  end  of  the  town  is 
the  plaza,  a  desolate  square ;  it  was  never,  as  is  some- 
times supposed,  the  slave  market.  As  is  customary,  the 
church  faces  upon  it,  as  do  the  municipal  offices,  more 
prosperous  in  appearance.  There  are  mineral  springs 
somewhere  in  this  vicinity.    The  Isle  entire  is  one  munic- 


308  CUBA  , 

ipal  district  (within  Havana  Province),  and  its  mayor, 
Sr.  D.  Benito  Ortiz,  resides  in  Nueva  Gerona.  Strange  to 
say,  he  is  a  Spaniard,  and  when  he  recently  announced 
his  intention  to  return  to  Spain  there  was  consterna- 
tion among  Cubans  and  Americans  ahke,  between 
which  factions  I  beheve  it  is  he  who  keeps  the  peace. 
He  was,  at  the  latest  elections,  the  unanimous  choice 
of  all  parties :  his  election  was  practically  by  accla- 
mation, and  while  Cuba  was  arguing  angrily  over  the 
polls  on  the  mainland,  the  Isle  of  Pines  painted  the 
southern  sky  with  bonfires  in  honor  of  Ortiz,  who 
walked  back  into  office  to  succeed  himself  without 
any  opposition  whatsoever.  There  is  a  bank  in  Nueva 
Gerona,  —  an  American  enterprise.  There  is  as  lively 
a  weekly  newspaper  as  one  could  find  anywhere  in  the 
United  States ;  it  is  principally  English,  but  includes 
Spanish  pages.  There  are  hotels,  —  native  hostelries 
and  American  headquarters  for  settlers,  who  come  driv- 
ing or  riding  into  town  on  ^^mail  days''  to  meet  the 
boat  from  Havana,  get  their  letters  and  papers,  ex- 
change greetings  with  each  other,  and,  in  the  grocery, 
dry  goods  and  general  stores  of  town,  to  buy  what  they 
need.  Their  automobiles,  spring  wagons,  buggies,  and 
carryalls  enliven  the  streets. 

The  Isle  of  Pines  is  one  municipal  district,  as  I  have 
said,  and  this  town  of  Nueva  Gerona  is  its  head  (cabe- 
cera).  Since  this  district  is,  for  all  purposes  of  admin- 
istration, an  integral  part  of  Havana  Province,  and 
therefore,  of  the  Republic  of  Cuba,  its  inhabitants  are 
liable  to  taxation,  —  national,  provincial,  and  munic- 
ipal. In  matters  of  real  estate,  following  a  usage 
general  throughout  Cuba,  an  official  appraisement  is 
made  once  every  five  years  by  the  municipality,  which  is 
concerned  to  know,  not  the  value  of  the  property  itself, 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  309 

but  rather  its  rental  value,  on  which  a  tax  amounting  > 

to  4  per  cent  on  rural  real  estate,  and  8  per  cent  on  ^^ 
urban,  is  levied.  No  account  is  taken  of  improve- 
ments which  may  be  made  after  an  appraisement, 
increasing  the  value,  until  the  next  regular  appraise- 
ment comes  round,  with  the  fifth  year.  The  appraiser 
has  not,  to  date,  held  an  objectionably  high  opinion  of 
the  rental  value  of  Isle  property ;  I  know,  for  instance, 
that  in  1907-1908  he  expected  to  obtain  $745.20  from 
urban  property,  and  $1180  from  rural  property,  —  in 
all  the  Isle.  There  has  been  no  complaint  on  this 
point.  It  is  the  municipality  also  which  levies  taxes 
on  business  in  the  shape  of  licenses  required  to  follow 
a  trade  or  profession,  or  conduct  a  shop,  store,  or  fac- 
tory. Carriages  for  hire,  saddle  horses,  public  enter- 
tainments, are  taxed.  Revenue  from  these  sources 
is  twice  what  it  is  from  real  estate.  The  taxpayer  who 
settles  up  with  the  municipality  is  not  usually  aware 
that  he  is  at  the  same  time  liquidating  accounts  with 
Havana  Province.  However,  4  per  cent  of  the  8  per 
cent  he  pays  on  the  rental  value  of  urban  real  estate, 
and  30  per  cent  of  the  receipts  from  taxes  on  industries, 
conveyances,  amusements,  etc.,  as  collected  from  him 
by  the  municipality,  are  handed  over  by  that  corpora- 
tion to  the  provincial  council  in  Havana. 

There  is  but  one  custom  house  on  the  Isle  of  Pines. 
It  is  situated  at  Nueva  Gerona,  and  through  it  all  direct 
importations  from  abroad  must  pass  prior  to  distribu- 
tion among  their  various  destinations.  Hardly  aware 
why  or  when  he  pays  it,  or  to  whom,  it  is  to  the  na- 
tional government  collecting  through  its  custom  house 
that  the  American  resident  along  with  the  native  on 
the  Isle  of  Pines,  as  elsewhere,  hands  over  his  heaviest 
contribution.     So  instinct  is  quite  correct  when  it  leads 


310  CUBA 

him  to  look  to  the  central,  national  government  for 
major  favors,  —  donations  to  cover  threatened  deficits, 
money  for  roads,  etc.,  —  in  short,  a  general  paternal 
supervision  of  local  governmental  affairs. 

In  exchange  for  taxes  paid,  the  people  receive  the 
usual  services  rendered  by  governments;  sanitation 
is  looked  after  more  or  less  (fortunately  soil  and  climate 
are  such  little  is  required  of  the  department) ;  there  are 
municipal  and  provincial  police,  and,  to  reinforce  them, 
rural  guards  (a  national  force). 

From  Nueva  Gerona  we  drove  to  Santa  Fe.  There 
is  an  excellent  macadamized  government  road.  Our 
conveyance  had  no  top.  Angela,  the  fat  gray  mule 
which  drew  it,  advanced  with  as  great  caution  and  as 
little  speed  as  though  she  hauled  some  tons  of  bagged 
sugar  or  building  blocks.  Captain  McLane,  driving, 
admonished  her  gently  and  in  vain.  We  huddled  under 
our  parasol  in  its  one  dot  of  shade,  and  before  our  half- 
blinded  eyes  the  landscape  passed,  monotonous,  waver- 
ing in  the  heat  of  the  hottest  hours  of  the  day,  inter- 
minable. 

We  passed  the  wreck  of  Santa  Rosalia,  the  first 
attempt  at  an  American  town  made  on  the  Isle  of  Pines. 
There  is  a  deserted  store,  an  unused  packing  house, 
the  frame  of  a  residence  not  completed :  irrefutable 
witnesses  all  to  the  fact  that  the  ^^  golden  apples  of  the 
Hesperides''  are  not  always  easy  picking,  even  on  the 
Isle  of  Pines.  Elsewhere  along  the  highway  we  saw 
still  other  forsaken  houses  and  lands  where  orchards 
were  set  out  and  later  abandoned;  yet  other  little 
frames  had,  we  understood,  been  burned  down,  because 
their  appearance,  their  open  doors  and  unhinged  win- 
dows, were  hardly  an  encouragement  to  further  invest- 
ment.    They  might  better  have  been  left  to  stand  as  a 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  311 

salutary  warning.  Along  that  same  road  we  passed,  as 
we  neared  Santa  Fe,  some  of  the  best-looking  groves  in 
the  Isle.  Despite  the  fact  that  it  was  toward  the  end 
of  the  worst  drought  remembered  by  the  present  gener- 
ation, either  there  or  in  Cuba,  the  trees  were  green  and 
their  leaves  drooped  but  slightly,  even  at  noonday. 
Their  condition,  however,  worried  growers  that  season : 
we  found  Dr.  Kellogg,  for  instance,  in  a  rather  savage 
mood,  striving  with  a  watering  can  to  save  the  garden 
which  is  his  dooryard;  he  was  not  inclined  to  discuss 
the  future  of  citrus  fruit  growing  in  any  aspect,  but 
three  days  later,  a  rain  having  fallen,  we  met  him  again, 
enlivened,  along  with  his  trees,  by  the  shower,  and  be- 
come, by  reason  of  the  downpour,  once  more  an  optimist. 
The  town  of  Santa  Fe,  attractively  situated  by  a  bend 
in  the  Santa  Fe  River,  antedates  Nueva  Gerona  by 
some  years,  for  '4n  1809  .  .  .  Mr.  Acosta,  who  was 
then  the  owner  of  the  farm  of  Santa  Fe,  allowed  some 
houses  to  be  built,  granting  for  that  object  as  many  as 
twelve  lots  on  a  spot  known  to-day  by  the  name  of 
Bosque  de  Mangos,  which  trees  are  planted  in  the  yards 
of  the  houses  built  by  the  inhabitants,  who  contributed 
as  many  as  five  or  six  lots.  And  being  desirous  to 
favor  the  development  of  the  growing  village  in  spite 
of  the  constant  struggle  with  the  pirates  and  malefactors, 
a  few  years  later  he  had  a  church  built  in  which  his 
son  D.  Ignacio  officiated,  whilst  even  before  that  time 
he  had  confessed  and  exhorted  the  neighbors.  .  .  .^^ 
Elsewhere  than  in  the  pamphlet  I  quote  (which  came 
to  me  minus  a  cover,  flyleaf,  and  all  other  means  of 
identification)  the  date  of  the  establishment  of  the 
church  at  Santa  Fe  is  given  as  1810.  ''This  [Santa  Fe] 
was  the  only  village  that  existed  in  1826.''  It  was  situ- 
ated then,  apparently,  at  some  distance  from  its  present 


312  CUBA 

site  (I  do  not  know  where  Bosque  de  Mangos  may  be), 
for  the  sick  had  a  mile  to  travel  to  the  thermal  spring 
of  Santa  Rita,  which  now  is  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the 
town.  The  establishment  of  Nueva  Gerona  almost 
depopulated  Santa  Fe.  In  1849,  however,  there  was  a 
sizable  distillery  there.  By  1850  Sr.  Calvo,  who 
owned  it,  had  established  a  weekly  steamer  service 
between  the  Isle  and  Batabano.  In  1856  Dr.  Luz 
Hernandez  wrote:  ^^ There  are  at  present  both  in 
Nueva  Gerona  and  in  Santa  Fe  a  sufficient  number  of 
houses  to  accommodate  twenty-five  or  thirty  families, 
besides  the  hotels  and  boarding  houses,  which  can  con- 
veniently lodge  as  many  more  individuals.  There  is 
no  special  building  for  the  market,  which  is  held  in  the 
streets  and  in  the  shops,  where  many  articles  of  luxury 
can  be  purchased  at  a  small  advance  on  their  current 
prices  in  Havana.  The  meats  are  generally  of  good 
quality,  the  bread  superior,  the  vegetables  most  excel- 
lent, and  the  poultry  very  fine ;  there  is  occasionally 
good  game  and  fish ;  the  milk  is  incomparably  better 
than  in  Havana;  and  greens  or  salads  are  not  want- 
ing.'' 

We  remained  a  night  or  so  at  the  Santa  Fe  Hotel, 
and  found  it,  at  that  time,  good.  The  building  was 
old  and  attractive.  The  dining  room  was,  I  remember, 
especially  pleasant.  It  was  the  rendezvous,  at  night, 
of  a  few  young  men,  who  drank  beer  ^  and  reveled 
to  excess  in  phonograph  music.  I  think  I  have  not 
seen  anything  in  Cuba  which  appealed  to  me  as  more 
comical  than  the  preternaturally  solemn  and  pre- 
occupied expression  these  young  fellows  wore  as  they 
sat,  beer  bottles  in  hand,  listening  attentively,  appre- 
ciatively, to  maudlin  sentimental  ^^ ragtime''  emitted, 
with  squeaks  and  rasps,  from  the  horn. 


THF    ISLE    OF   PINES  313 

We  found  Santa  Fe  more  attractive,  to  our  notion, 
than  Nueva  Gerona,  thanks  especially  to  pleasant  green 
woods  along  the  river  there.  We  went  down  to  the 
neat  new  bathhouse.  We  drank  of  the  two  mineral 
(magnesia  and  iron)  springs,  famous  even  among  the 
Indians.  It  is  of  these  springs  John  Esquemeling,  the 
Dutch  pirate  author  of  ^^Bucaniers  of  America''  (Lon- 
don, 1684)  wrote  when  he  told  the  following  legend  of 
their  origin :  — 

^^Many  ages  agone,  before  the  white  men  came  in 
their  great  ships  from  the  other  world,  the  Isle  was 
peopled  by  a  powerful  race  of  Indians.  One  tribe 
only  dwelt  among  its  hills  and  valleys  and  therein  lay 
the  strength  of  the  people  ;  for,  though  the  great  island 
to  the  northward  (Cuba)  boasted  by  far  more  inhabit- 
ants, they  were  divided  into  many  tribes,  no  one  of 
which  was  as  strong  as  the  race  which  dwelt  on  the 
smaller  isle.  Now,  the  tribes  in  those  days  were  very 
fierce  and  constantly  at  war  with  one  another,  but 
though  they  that  inhabited  the  larger  island  envied  the 
great  people  to  the  southward,  they  could  not  prevail 
over  them  because  they  were  divided. 

'^The  ruler  of  the  warriors  on  the  smaller  isle  was  a 
mighty  chief,  whose  word  was  their  law ;  and  this  chief 
had  a  son  whom  he  cherished  above  all  else.  ^For,' 
he  said,  4n  time  he  shall  rule  in  my  stead.'  But  it  was 
the  custom  among  the  warriors  of  the  Isle  that  no  prince 
should  be  suffered  to  rule  over  them  until  his  courage 
had  been  tested  in  war.  And  so  strong  was  this  tribe 
and  so  great  the  fear  with  which  it  inspired  its  enemies 
that  throughout  the  youth  of  the  prince  there  had  been 
no  war  and  he  had  grown  up  in  the  midst  of  peace. 
Moreover  he  took  no  pleasure  in  the  tribal  dances  and 
mock  battles  of  his  people,  but  delighted  in  the  silence 


314  CUBA 

of  the  woods,  for  he  was  a  pensive  youth.  And  while 
wandering  thus  among  the  sohtudes,  he  had  acquired 
much  wisdom,  but  it  was  the  wisdom  of  peace.  He 
drew  his  lessons  from  Nature.  On  the  sterile  hilltops, 
where  the  trees  were  at  constant  war  with  the  elements, 
they  brought  forth  no  fruit,  but  grew  up  gnarled  and 
stunted,  while  in  the  rich  soils  of  the  valleys,  where 
all  was  peaceful  and  still,  they  thrived  and  bore  bounti- 
fully. Thus  he  reasoned  that  all  tribes  of  the 
surrounding  isle  might  prosper  if  they  would  abandon 
their  strife  and  be  at  peace  with  one  another.  But 
when  he  spoke  of  these  things  to  the  young  men  of  his 
tribe,  they  turned  away  and  smiled,  for  he  was  not  of 
their  nature. 

^^And  so  it  came  about  that  when  age  had  whitened 
the  hair  of  their  chief,  the  old  men  of  the  council  came 
to  him  and  said:*  ^Lo,  the  days  that  remain  to  thee 
seem  not  many,  and  whom  shall  we  have  to  rule  over 
us  when  thou  art  gone  ?  For  thy  son,  the  prince,  has 
not  yet  been  proven.'  And  the  chief  fixed  his  eyes 
upon  the  ground,  for  brave  though  he  was,  he  feared 
for  his  son's  sake.  At  length  he  roused  himself  and, 
meeting  the  gaze  of  the  council,  replied :  ^  It  is  well. 
My  son  has  not  been  tried.  But  lo,  our  enemies  on 
yonder  island  are  many.  He  shall  go  forth  to  battle 
with  them.'  So  the  chief  called  his  warriors  together, 
and  leading  forth  his  son,  placed  his  own  spear  in  his 
hand  and  hung  his  own  shield  over  his  heart.  Then 
he  bade  him  enter  his  war  canoe  that  he  might  go 
against  his  enemies,  and  counseled  him  to  return  no 
more  until  he  had  proven  himself.  And  the  prince 
sailed  away  at  the  head  of  his  father's  warriors  to  con- 
quer the  tribes  on  the  great  island  to  the  north. 

^^The  days  passed,  and  at  length  one  evening  the 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  315 

heralds  came  running  down  from  the  hilltops  with  the 
news  that  the  war  canoes  of  the  trib'e  were  returning. 
So  the  chief  came  and  stood  on  the  island  strand,  with 
the  old  men  of  his  council  about  him,  to  await  the  com- 
ing of  his  warriors.  And  as  the  canoes  drew  near  he 
saw  that  all  of  them  save  his  son's  were  decked  with 
branches  of  the  palm  tree.  At  this  the  chief  marvelled 
greatly,  and  turning  to  his  council  besought  the  reason 
thereof.  But  the  old  men  looked  gravely  across  the 
waters,  for  never  before  in  all  their  years  had  they  wit- 
nessed such  a  home  coming  of  their  warriors. 

'^  At  last  the  canoes  grated  upon  the  shore,  and  as  the 
warriors  stepped  forth  the  chief  grew  pale,  for  lo  !  his 
son  was  bound.  For  a  moment  the  old  chief  stood 
speechless.  Then  lifting  up  his  voice  he  addressed 
the  sub-chief  of  the  war  party :  ^  And  you  call  this  a 
victory,  to  thus  return  my  son  to  me  in  bonds  !  Haste 
thee  and  explain  or  die  ! '  To  which  awful  command 
the  sub-chief  made  reply :  ^  May  our  great  chief  live 
long,  until  the  sorrow  of  this  day  be  forgotten  !  Lo, 
thy  son  is  thus  returned  to  thee  for  that  he  left  our 
camp  on  the  first  day  of  our  landing  and  went  among 
our  enemies  to  talk  of  peace.  And  lo  !  he  had  suc- 
ceeded but  for  our  warriors  who  fell  upon  them  while 
in  council  and  put  them  to  the  spear,  all  save  this,  thy 
son,  whom  we  could  not  slay  because  he  is  thine.' 

^^When  the  speaker  had  finished  the  chief  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  his  son  and  in  a  terrible  voice  commanded : 
^  Speak,  dog  !  What  hast  thou  to  say  ere  thou  per- 
ishest  ? '  And  the  prince,  smiling,  thus  made  answer  : 
^Patience,  my  sire.  Lead  me,  I  pray  thee,  into  the 
forest  depths,  and  there  I  will  tell  you  all.'  And  the 
chief  commanded  and  they  led  him  far  into  the  woods 
to  the  banks  of  a  beautiful  rivulet.     And  here  the  chief 


316  CUBA 

bade  them  sever  his  bonds,  whereat  the  prince  stood 
up  before  them  and  told  again  the  story  of  the  wind- 
tossed  tree  on  the  mountain  and  the  fruitful  one  in  the 
vale.  But  when  he  told  them  how  he  had  sought  to 
impart  a  lesson  therefrom  to  their  enemies,  they  mocked 
him,  and  the  chief,  in  his  anger,  caught  up  a  spear  and 
thrust  it  through  the  heart  of  his  son.  And  the  prince 
sank  lifeless  upon  the  greensward,  while  his  blood  flowed 
in  a  tiny  crimson  rill  down  the  bank  until  it  mingled 
with  the  waters  of  the  rivulet. 

^^And  straightway  the  people  knew  that  the  Great 
Spirit  was  wroth  with  them  for  the  evil  they  had  done, 
for  a  hot  wind  swept  down  upon  the  Isle  and  smote 
them  with  a  deadly  plague.  Then  while  the  dire  afflic- 
tion was  upon  them,  their  enemies  from  the  great  island 
in  the  north  suddenly  appeared  and  would  have  fallen 
upon  them  had  they  not  chanced  to  see  the  prince 
lying  dead  on  the  greensward. 

^^When  the  chief  of  the  avenging  tribe  learned  the 
cause  of  the  young  man^s  death,  he  paused,  ere  begin- 
ning his  work  of  destruction,  and  commanded  his 
warriors  to  fashion  a  grave  beside  the  rivulet,  and 
stooped  down  and  lifted  the  body  in  his  own  arms. 
As  he  did  this  the  assembled  warriors  marvelled,  for 
out  of  the  ground  in  the  very  spot  where  the  prince  had 
lain  gushed  forth  a  beautiful  spring  as  clear  as  crystal 
and  as  warm  as  blood.  And  the  invading  tribe  knew 
this  to  be  a  token  of  good-will.  And,  instead  of  aveng- 
ing themselves  on  their  stricken  enemies,  they  brought 
them  to  the  wonderful  spring  and  laved  them  in  its 
waters,  where  upon  they  immediately  became  well. 

^^And  this  is  the  reason,  declare  old-time  natives 
about  Santa  Fe,  why  those  waters  for  many  years 
afterwards  bore  the  name  of  ^The  Spring  of  Peace,  ^  and 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  317 

why,  unto  this  day  they  are  so  revered  throughout  the 
Indies/' 

Unto  this  very  day,  —  that  I  record  their  reputation, 
on  a  typewriter  for  a  Hnotype  to  repeat ! 

There  has  never  been  any  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  know  the  country  that  the  Isle  of  Pines  enjoys  a 
salubrious  climate.  Fever,  plague,  and  the  thousand 
epidemics  that  at  one  time  or  another  have  taken  the 
mainland  of  Cuba  to  task  for  wholesale  neglect  of  the 
simplest  laws  of  sanitation,  never  invaded  the  Isle  of 
Pines,  precisely  as  they  have  never  spread  to  similar 
pine  lands  of  Pinar  del  Rio.  The  Isle's  elevations  and 
declivities,  and  the  nature  of  the  soil  itself,  are  such 
that  even  the  heaviest  rains  leave  no  death-breeding 
pools.  Rivers  and  creeks  of  pure  water  thread  the  sur- 
face of  the  land,  while  in  every  quarter  are  natural 
springs  of  valuable  medicinal  waters,  both  hot  and  cold, 
those  at  Santa  Fe  being  merely  the  niost  renowned 
among  many.  Over  all  is  a  clear  and  sunny  sky,  hand- 
somely flecked  with  white  clouds,  scudding  hither  and 
yon  with  the  constant  breeze  that  blows  from  the  ocean, 
which  is  around  about  on  every  side.  The  mercury 
is  not  given  to  sudden  rise  or  fall.  The  maximum  tem- 
perature in  the  year  1907-1908,  according  to  observa- 
tions made  by  Messrs.  Young,  of  Santa  Teresa  estate, 
was  96  degrees  at  high  noon  on  August  11,  and  again 
on  August  30;  minimum  recorded,  51  degrees  at  six 
A.M.  on  January  26 ;  average  temperature  for  the  year 
considered  (three  readings  daily)  78.95  degrees.  The 
air  is  balsamic  with  the  resinous  fragrance  of  piny 
woods. 

The  Isle  was  known  as  a  resort  for  persons  in  ill 
health  long  before  1800;  by  1826  it  was  famous  for 
the  curative  qualities  of  its  waters  and  its  air,  but  the 


318  CUBA 

hardships  of  the  trip  hither  deterred  physicians  from 
recommending  patients  to  attempt  to  reach  a  place 
then  so  far  off  regular  routes  of  travel,  except  in  cases 
so  serious  that  a  longer  journey  into  a  region  even  less 
known  seemed  to  be  the  only  alternative.  As  early 
as  1827  the  Spanish  government  was  favorably  consider- 
ing advantages  the  Isle  offered  as  an  acclimation  and 
convalescent  camp  for  the  Spanish  army  in  Cuba,  an 
army  constantly,  in  times  of  peace  as  in  times  of  war, 
decimated  by  Yellow  Jack  (called  by  Cubans  ''the 
Great  Patriot,''  because  it  is  so  inveterate  and  fatal  a 
foe  to  Spaniards  along  with  all  foreigners) .  In  the  year 
mentioned  the  commanding  colonel  of  the  Barcelona 
Regiment  proposed  to  send  to  the  Isle  of  Pines /'such 
privates  as  suffered  diseases  of  the  lungs,  in  order  to 
utilize  for  their  advantage  the  virtues  and  excellence  of 
that  climate,  considering  it  an  appropriate  place  for 
convalescents  to  recover  their  lost  health/'  "The 
supreme  authority  of  the  island  of  Cuba,"  says  Dr. 
Ramon  Pina  y  Pifiuela,  in  his  Treatise  (1850),  "ap- 
proved this  project  and  commenced  to  send  to  that  place 
the  individuals  of  the  troops  who,  according  to  the 
judgment  of  the  physicians,  were  in  a  state  to  stand 
in  need  of  this  measure."  Of  the  173  patients  listed 
in  a  table  by  Dr.  Jose  de  la  Luz  Hernandez,  "who 
were  removed,"  he  says,  "from  the  hospital  rather 
with  an  intention  to  console  them  than  with  the  pious 
hope  of  curing  them,"  138  astounded  the  doctors 
by  getting  well,  thus  reflecting  credit  upon  the  Isle 
of  Pines. 

During  these  same  years  (1844  on)  Dr.  Luz  Hernan- 
dez was  recommending  the  Isle  to  his  patients,  and 
conducting  experiments  there,  from  which  he  formed  the 
very  favorable  opinion  of  the  Isle's  climate  expressed 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  319 

in  1857  in  his  published  Memoir  on  its  salubrity.  He 
gives  a  list  of  diseases  cured  or  at  least  bettered  on  the 
Isle  which  reads  like  some  fonts  of  type,  pied.  And 
ever  since  his  time  to  and  through  the  present  date  all 
physicians  who  have  investigated  climatic  conditions, 
and  especially  the  mineral  springs  at  Nueva  Gerona 
and  at  Santa  Fe,  have  agreed  in  lauding  the  Isle  as  a 
health  resort.  The  only  drawback  is  the  lack  of  really 
good  hotels.  The  hotel  at  Santa  Fe  has  suffered 
changes  in  management  since  I  was  first  there.  The 
hotel  at  Nueva  Gerona  was,  at  that  time,  almost  un- 
bearable to  persons  in  the  best  of  health.  On  the  occa- 
sion of  my  second  visit  (1910)  the  American  hotel  at 
Santa  Fe  was  closed ;  I  found  very  good  accommoda- 
tions at  the  old  native  hostelry  on  the  laurel-shaded 
plaza.  The  hotel  at  Nueva  Gerona  was  overcrowded ; 
I  had  to  seek  rooms  in  a  private  family.  A  handsome 
bungalow  hotel  was  in  course  of  erection  out  at  Key- 
View-by-the-Sea.  I  do  not  know  what  accommoda- 
tions were  to  be  had  at  McKinley. 

Santa  Fe  (it  has  its  pioneer  weekly  newspaper,  origi- 
nally all  English,  but  now  published  in  two  lan- 
guages ;  its  churches,  Protestant  and  Catholic ;  its 
stores,  both  native  and  American)  and  Nueva  Gerona 
are  the  two  towns  Americans  found  already  established 
on  the  Isle  when  in  1898  the  change  began  which  since 
that  date  has  transformed  the  country.  Then  com- 
menced the  American  invasion,  which  still  continues; 
it  has  brought  in  men,  women,  and  children  of  other 
race  than  ever  was  in  the  Isle  before :  a  hard-headed, 
strong-handed,  dominant  and  domineering  people  who 
refer  to  all  things  not  American  in  a  tone  which  tells  the 
truth,  —  they  have  made  the  ^^ native'^  an  alien  in  his 
own  land. 


320  CUBA 

No  sooner  was  the  Treaty  of  Paris  signed,  putting 
an  end  to  the  Spanish- American  War,  than  certain  alert 
Americans,  presimiing  that  the  Isle  of  Pines  had  be- 
come American  territory  by  virtue  of  Article  II  in  that 
treaty,  which  cedes  to  the  United  States  ^^  Porto  Rico 
and  all  other  islands  now  under  Spanish  sovereignty  in 
the  West  Indies,  ^^  began  an  American  occupation  of  it 
in  all  its  length  and  breadth.  They  bought  great  tracts 
of  land  from  Cuban  and  Spanish  owners,  which  areas 
they  at  once  laid  out  in  smaller  parcels  and  resold  to 
settlers  whom  they  assured  that  it  was  American  soil. 
How  well  do  I  recall  the  fever  to  own  a  home  in  a  per- 
fumed golden  garden  in  that  fascinating  simimery 
island  (under  the  American  flag)  that  burned  through 
certain  government  offices  here  in  Havana  along  about 
1900,  when  many  a  clerk,  hit  by  a  sudden  ambition  to 
save  and  invest,  turned  into  Santa  Rosalia  and  espe- 
cially Columbia  the  surplus  of  salaries  Jai  Alai 
would  otherwise  have  won.  Yet  in  1902,  when  the 
American  Military  Government  of  Cuba  withdrew, 
leaving  the  first  Republic  of  Cuba  constituted,  the 
Isle  of  Pines  found  itself  still  administered  as  part  of 
Havana  Province,  just  as  it  had  always  been.  Protests 
were  made  to  Washington.  On  one  occasion  Havana 
was  startled  to  learn  (through  a  young  daily  newspaper 
much  inflated  by  the  ^^  scoop '0  that  the  Isle  of  Pines 
had  seceded,  organized  a  territorial  government  of  its 
own,  on  an  original  adaptation  of  the  usual  American 
plan  {vide  the  histories  of  Texas  and  Hawaii),  and  was 
demanding  entrance  into  the  American  union !  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Nick  Biddle  of  the  Herald  (his 
very  aura  was  r-r-rousing  r-r-revolution),  whose  reports, 
and  Richard  Harding  Davis,  whose  photograph  of 
^^Nueva  Gerona  on  a  Busy  Day,'^  the  people  there  still 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  321 

resent,  honored  the  Isle  with  their  disquieting  presence. 
When  the  secession  spirit  faltered,  Nick  Biddle  ''set  it 
up/'  When  news  got  scarce,  he  made  more.  Flags 
and  firearms  were  in  evidence.  Just  as  real  trouble  was 
imminent,  according  to  the  most  interesting  story,  the 
waterworks  ran  away  (the  works  were  a  goat  cart  and 
a  garafon),  everybody  was  reduced  to  stronger  drink, 
which,  before  the  hour  set  for  declaration  of  war, 
melted  Cubans  and  Americans  to  sentimental  good 
humor,  —  and  bloodshed  was  thus  averted.  What- 
ever the  facts  may  have  been,  —  and  they  were  widely 
at  variance  with  the  most  amusing  versions,  —  seces- 
sion and  rebellion  were  put  down  by  ridicule,  but  not 
before  considerable  irritation  had  been  occasioned  in 
both  the  United  States  and  Cuba.  No  final  recogni- 
tion of  the  Isle  as  American  territory  was  obtained ; 
on  the  contrary,  Secretary  Root  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  always  been  an  integral  part  of  Cuba 
(that  it  assuredly  was  prior  to  1898  no  one  disputes), 
adding  that  in  his  opinion  the  United  States  has  not 
acquired  any  substantial  claim  to  it.  Yet  the  Piatt 
Amendment  provides  (1901)  that  title  to  the  Isle  shall 
be  left  to  future  adjustment  by  treaty  between  the 
United  States  and  Cuba;  evidently  its  framers  pre- 
supposed some  claim  to  American  ownership  to  exist, 
even  if  not  '' substantial. '^  Two  treaties  relinquishing 
the  Isle  to  Cuba  having  failed  of  ratification  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  the  door  is  still  open  to  that 
''future  adjustment.^'  In  the  interim  the  Isle  remains 
de  facto  Cuban,  pending  definite  action  by  the  political 
departments  of  the  two  governments  concerned.  It 
seems  to  me  that  recent  discussion  regarding  ownership 
of  the  Isle,  semi-official  on  Cuba's  side,  has  been  rather 
foolish  in  its  futility,   the  facts  being  those  the  Su- 


322  CUBA 

preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Pearcy  vs.  Stranahan, 
has  dispassionately  declared  them  to  be. 

Meanwhile,  American  residents  there  have  made 
the  Isle  of  Pines  an  American  community  in  everything 
except  political  status.  As  surely  as  now  we  own 
California,  political  recognition  must  follow,  inter- 
national law  being,  like  other  law,  simply  a  statement 
of  what  is. 

Americans  are  in  the  majority  of  the  population; 
American  money  is  not  only  the  official,  but  the  actual 
currency  of  trade ;  the  prevailing  architecture  outside 
the  towns  is  unreasonably  American;  American  min- 
isters preach  from  the  pulpits;  American  automobiles 
and  spring  wagons  have  replaced  the  clumsy  oxcart, 
and  they  travel  over  the  best  of  roads,  wide,  smooth 
highways  provided  by  an  American  Provisional  Gov- 
ernor of  Cuba,  to  facilitate  shipments  of  fruits  from 
orchards  and  gardens  owned  by  Americans,  producing 
for  American  markets.  There  are  maps  published,  on 
which  lands  whose  proprietors  are  Americans  are  col- 
ored red;  these  maps  show  that,  literally,  Americans 
own  the  Isle  of  Pines.  It  is  especially  significant  that 
on  these  maps  one  or  two  little  spots  they  do  not  own 
are  colored  red  anyhow,  at  the  request  and  with  the 
connivance  of  the  Spaniards  and  Cubans  who  do. 
They  too  would  like  to  see  conditions,  as  they  are,  recog- 
nized in  Washington  and  in  Havana,  and  they  throw 
even  this  small  item  of  influence  in  that  direction.  I 
do  not  believe  that  were  the  United  States  to  purchase 
the  Isle  of  Pines,  or  accept  it,  say,  as  a  very  inadequate 
return  for  money  our  government  has  spent  on  Cuba, 
there  would  be  anything  but  rejoicing  in  the  Isle,  among 
natives  and  Spaniards,  as  well  as  Americans.  The 
event   would   assure   prosperity   that   would   speedily 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  323 

obliterate  sentimental  regrets,  if  any  such  were  enter- 
tained there.  In  Havana,  on  the  contrary,  the  trans- 
action would  not  be  popular,  for  the  moment  it  is 
suggested  Havana  discovers  incalculable  value  in  a  bit 
of  territory  she  has,  for  generations,  ridiculed  as  un- 
productive, sterile,  arid,  and  uninhabitable,  making  it 
the  prison  place  of  her  convicted  criminals. 

It  is  remarkable  that  so  little  friction  should  exist 
between  settlers  in  a  community  as  thoroughly  Ameri- 
can as  the  Isle  of  Pines  and  local  officials  who  represent 
political  administration  of  it  by  another  nationality. 
There  has  been  some  bad  feeling  in  years  past :  certain 
Cuban  authorities  installed  at  the  time  of  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Republic  in  1902  lacked  tact  and  ability 
to  handle  the  difficult  situation  created  at  that  juncture 
by  the  bitter  humor  of  the  American  settlers,  for  the 
first  time  compelled  to  realize  that  they  were  deceived 
in  believing  the  Isle  to  be  recognized  American  terri- 
tory. Those  officials  were  very  shortly  replaced.  The 
most  violent  of  the  agitators  among  the  settlers  — 
the  sort  who  advocated  battle,  murder,  and  sudden 
death  unless  immediate  recognition  as  American  terri- 
tory were  forthcoming  —  were  also  retired.  There 
succeeded  an  era  of  good  feeling,  skillfully  fostered  by 
rational  men  placed  at  the  head  of  local  affairs,  and, 
from  Havana,  by  judicious  expenditure,  especially 
under  former  Governor  Magoon,  of  public  funds  for 
public  improvements  on  the  Isle,  in  the  shape  of  maca- 
damized roads,  which  cost  $176,525.65,  various  repairs, 
and  the  erection  of  municipal  buildings.  Americans 
on  the  Isle,  if  asked  their  opinion  of  the  government  at 
Havana  now,  admit  that,  up  to  very  recent  date  at 
any  rate,  it  has  been  more  than  fair  to  them.  They 
will  not  say  as  much  of  the  government  at  Washington. 


324  CUBA 

It  must  be  recalled  that  the  American  settlers  on 
the  Isle  of  Pines  form,  as  seen  from  Cuba  proper,  a 
community  of  foreigners  ;  they  insist,  vigorously,  upon 
remaining  so.  They  have  taken  possession  of  a  large 
and  valuable  territory,  which  before  their  advent  paid 
unquestioned  allegiance  to  Cuba.  They  even  venture 
to  dispute  that  allegiance.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine 
how  unpleasant,  toward  any  similar  foreign  com- 
munity within  American  jurisdiction,  the  attitude  of 
American  officials  would  be.  Cuba,  however,  far  from 
forcibly  exacting  compliance  with  her  laws  to  minutest 
detail,  has  winked  at  many  a  breach,  insisting  only  upon 
maintaining  her  flag  afloat. 

Recently,  a  scarcity  of  funds  having  made  itself 
evident  in  the  treasury,  so  officials  say,  certain  govern- 
ment schools  conducted  on  the  Isle  in  English,  as  Ameri- 
cans use  that  language,  under  American  teachers,  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  American  children,  have  been 
discontinued.  The  resentment  aroused  is  keen.  It 
has  not  been  assuaged  by  the  dilatory  tactics  of  the 
authorities,  who  have  promised  much  and  done  nothing. 
Brought  face  to  face  with  the  point,  most  pineros  admit 
it  is  expecting  a  good  deal  of  a  government  to  ask  it  to 
maintain  public  schools  in  a  foreign  language  for  for- 
eign children  within  its  territory  ;  they  argue,  however, 
that  they  have  had  such  schools  for  years,  that  they 
want  them  yet,  —  and,  anyhow,  who's  paying  cus- 
tomhouse duties  and  taxes  on  business  which  con- 
stitute the  sole  revenue  accruing  from  the  Isle  to  the 
central  government  ?  Answer :  Americans,  who  get 
no  representation  in  return, — not  even  half  a  dozen 
schools  ! 

Principal  among  the  forces  which  work  toward  the 
inevitable  acknowledgment  of  the  Isle  as  American, 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  325 

are  its  land  companies,  American  corporations  which 
have  bought  up  large  tracts  from  Spanish  and  Cuban 
owners,  cleared  their  titles,  surveyed  the  land,  and  laid  it 
out  in  parcels  of  convenient  acreage  which  now  they  are 
reselling  to  individual  settlers,  Americans  almost  to  a 
man. 

At  places  which  suit  their  convenience  these  com- 
panies have  located  new  towns.  Many  of  these  towns 
exist  only  in  prospectuses  and  the  roseate  imagination 
of  the  developing  company.  At  McKinley  (1908),  I 
recall,  we  drove  some  miles  away  from  pleasant  resi- 
dences along  Cleveland  Road,  to  ground  entirely  unoc- 
cupied except  by  a  few  courageous  trees  and  grass  ^^of 
grand  valor,  ^'  as  they  say  in  Spanish.  Here,  however, 
we  were  shown  the  plaza^  and  told  the  very  patterns 
accepted  for  its  embellishment  in  landscape  gardening ; 
the  church  stood  yonder;  the  hotel  (I  forget  what  it 
cost),  and  the  sanitarium,  —  right  there  and  there. 
We  drove  through  the  residential  quarter  and  then  to 
the  docks  on  the  Nuevas  River  ;  at  a  certain  spot  under- 
bush  had  been  cut  away,  and  as  we  stood,  gazing  from 
the  steep  bank  into  the  thick  dark  stream,  unmolested 
quite  in  its  primitive  majesty,  we  learned  the  height 
and  cost  of  the  wharf  planned ;  and  were  astonished 
at  the  frequency  of  direct  steamship  communication 
between  this  and  American  ports.  In  the  overhanging 
bushes  a  tiny  wild  bird  trilled.  Ah,  well,  of  such  dreams 
as  these,  irrigated  with  the  sweat  of  the  facile  believer, 
grow  cities  in  reality,  such,  for  instance,  as  California's. 

On  the  north  shore  of  the  Isle  two  promontories 
break,  as  has  been  said,  through  the  monotony  of  the 
coastal  fringe  of  mangrove.  They  are  Colombo  Head- 
land, so  called  for  the  Discoverer,  that  being  the  Italian 
version  of  his  name  used  by  his  companions,  and  Bibi- 


326  CUBA 

jagua  Point.  The  Headland  forms  the  eastern  protec- 
tion of  Colombo  Bay,  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water,  bril- 
liantly blue  and  sparkling,  as  the  writer  saw  it,  on  a 
sunny  morning  when  just  breeze  enough  stirred  to 
dimple  its  surface  from  shore  to  shore.  It  seems  quite 
encircled  by  Ceballos'  valuable  marble  piles,  green- 
draped  and  picturesque.  Immediately  west  of  Colom- 
bo Headland,  between  that  promontory,  with  its  atten- 
dant islet  (DeviFs  Dot),  and  the  headland  next  to  the 
east,  known  as  Indian  Point,  a  pleasant  beach  lies  in  a 
curve;  it  is  clear  white  sand,  every  separate  grain  of 
which  is  a  sharp-edged  quartz  crystal.  Beyond  In- 
dian Point,  —  an  abrupt  and  bushy  bulk,  —  the  coast 
dips  in  again,  to  form  the  sheltered  cove  of  Bibi jagua 
Beach,  which,  to  my  disappointment,  I  did  not  see, 
for  as  we  arrived  clouds  suddenly  assembled,  let 
down  rain, — not  in  drops,  but  in  hurtling  sheets,  like 
bucketsful  thrown.  We  saw  the  framework  of  a  new 
hotel  dimly,  through  water.  This  vicinity  looks  much 
as  it  must  have  appeared  to  Columbus'  admiring  com- 
pany ;  his  men  were  undoubtedly  the  first  Caucasians 
to  venture  into  the  seclusion  of  these  anchorages. 
These  places  witnessed  later,  I  harbor  no  doubt,  dramas 
of  piracy,  through  scenes  in  which  characters  as  arro- 
gant and  ruthless  as  novelists  imagine  in  fiction  strode 
in  fact.  Next,  a  quieter  era  of  agricultural  develop- 
ment, when  the  marble  quarries  of  Brazo  Fuerte,  its 
tanneries,  and  the  sugar  estate  at  Bibijagua  itself  were 
in  operation.  Now,  another  act,  for  over  these  head- 
lands and  pleasant  beaches,  sugar  lands  around  the 
hills,  and  poetic  ruins  of  the  handsome  mill  (excellently 
equipped,  and  in  operation  as  late  as  1875),  Americans 
have  spread  the  blueprint  map  of  a  town  site  called 
Key-View-by-the-Sea,  in  which  they  are  selling  resi- 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  327 

dence  lots  to  Pittsburgers,  for  winter  homes.  Around 
the  giant  laurels,  which,  gnarled  and  mighty,  mark  the 
entrance  to  the  deserted  sugar  factory,  they  have  laid 
out  an  experimental  garden  to  supply  tropical  fruits, 
flowers,  and  shrubs.  Beside  Colombo  Headland,  where 
the  Discoverer  himself  may  have  stood  to  look  across 
the  fair  country  he  found,  they  are  reconstructing  docks 
from  which  the  sugar  mill  shipped  in  its  time ;  they  will 
rebuild,  they  say,  its  warehouse.  On  the  hills  they  plan 
handsome  driveways,  and  here  they  invite  residences 
to  appear.  Of  all  the  towns-that-are-to-be  this  one, 
because  of  its  truly  beautiful  situation,  and  its  historic 
associations,  most  pleases  me. 

Certain  other  towns  (in  addition  to  Nueva  Gerona 
and  Santa  Fe)  already  are.  Columbia  is  the  oldest 
of  the  settlements  Americans  have  built  up  since  their 
arrival.  It  is  situated  at  a  distance  of  some  three  miles 
from  that  point  on  the  Jucaro  River  which  is  Port 
Jucaro  on  one  side  and  Columbia  Landing  on  the 
other.  It  has  its  post-office  and  general  store,  church 
services  and  school,  blacksmith,  physician,  and  watch- 
maker. There  are  orange  groves  around  the  resi- 
dences even  in  the  town. 

Los  Indios,  a  settlement  on  the  southwest  coast,  is 
accessible  by  land  and  sea.  We  drove  across  from  Santa 
Fe,  via  La  Ceiba.  Part  of  the  way  lay  through  pine 
lands  where  the  trees  attained  considerable  girth.  Here 
we  found  Stark's  sawmill  in  operation.  We  stopped 
for  a  moment  at  the  house  to  exchange  a  word  or  two 
with  Mrs.  Stark,  and  we  asked  her  if  she  ever  grew 
lonely  in  that  solitude.  There  is  a  Httle  creek  near 
the  house,  over  which  trees  bend.  ''That,''  she  said, 
in  reply,  ''is  my  Broadway.  All  the  leaves  are  on 
parade.     They  change  their  gowns  with  the  seasons 


328  CUBA 

and  with  the  weather.  Notice  the  wide  variety  in 
styles/'  —  and  she  called  our  attention  to  differences  in 
the  trees  and  in  their  leaves.  ''I  think/'  she  concluded, 
^^one  can  find  much  of  interest  in  any  environment.  A 
plant  has  its  identity  as  well  as  a  person ;  its  likes,  dis- 
likes, its  moods  and  humors.  Yonder  are  my  friends ; 
and  I  assure  you,  they  are  good  company.''  (Ponder 
that !)  We  passed,  also,  on  our  way,  the  Hansen  resi- 
dence, on  the  Canada  tract,  and  for  none  I  know  have 
I  a  stronger  admiration  than  for  this  man  and  his  wife, 
as  I  saw  them,  abandoned  by  a  land  company's  change 
of  plans,  in  an  isolated  region,  without  neighbors ;  for 
they  had,  against  all  odds,  made  for  themselves  a  home. 
I  wonder  what  vicissitudes  of  fortune  have  been  theirs 
since  that  day. 

At  Los  Indios,  because,  I  think,  of  its  location, 
frontier  conditions  are  more  obviously  present  than 
elsewhere  on  the  Isle.  The  settlers  are,  or  were  at  least 
in  1908,  mostly  Westerners,  acquainted,  if  only  by 
heredity,  with  hardship ;  they  were  bravely  meeting 
difficulties  and  overcoming  them.  Their  houses  were 
scattered  over  a  considerable  area.  Through  white 
sandy  soil  the  citrus  fruit  trees  were  coming  up.  They 
proudly  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  that  driest 
^' spell"  on  record  Los  Indios  had  not  lacked  for  rain, 
thanks  to  the  Cafiada  Mountains,  which  had  held  up 
rain  clouds  drifting  in  from  sea,  and  compelled  them  to 
''stand  and  deUver"  grateful  showers.  There  is  a  gen- 
eral store  at  Los  Indios :  I  understand  the  building  it 
occupied  when  we  saw  it  was  leveled  by  a  cyclone,  and 
no  one  hurt.  The  company  provides  a  school  building, 
and  when  we  were  there  the  government  paid  a  teacher. 
There  were  church  and  Sunday-school  services.  There 
was  a  hotel.     From  Los  Indios  we  returned  to  Nueva 


THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  329 

Gerona  by  launch,  in  some  five  hours^  trip,  skirting  the 
western  and  northern  shores  of  the  Isle.  The  Caribbean 
was  blue  and  placid ;  cool  breezes  blew ;  the  shore  line 
was  of  interest,  attention  centering  now  on  the  moun- 
tains (Caballos,  Canada,  Daguilla,  Casas),  always 
in  sight  yet  altered  each  moment  in  aspect ;  or,  closer 
at  hand,  in  islets  and  promontories,  and  indentations 
in  the  coast  that  are  the  mouths  of  rivers  entering  the 
sea. 

Most  residents  on  the  Isle  of  Pines  live,  however, 
outside  the  towns,  which  are  only  centers  of  supply. 
They  dwell  upon  their  estates,  in  homes  that  vary  from 
simplest  board  shelters  to  frame,  or  part  concrete  resi- 
dences, wherein,  in  floors,  wainscoting,  and  stairways, 
a  wealth  of  hardwood,  polished  and  carved,  has  been 
employed.  Comfort  is  everywhere,  and  there  is  not 
a  little  of  luxury,  —  in  rugs,  cut-glass  ware,  pianos,  — 
and,  most  symbolic  to  my  mind,  in  the  twoscore 
automobiles,  little  ^^buzzers'^  and  touring  cars  and  big 
red  buses,  which  travel  the  highways  nowadays,  amid 
little  attention  from  their  rivals,  the  sophisticated  mules. 

The  ^^ social  atmosphere^'  of  the  Isle  of  Pines  has 
seemed  to  me,  during  my  two  visits  there,  most  admir- 
able. The  settlers  are  men  and  women  of  the  very 
highest  type  of  American ;  they  are  legitimate  heirs  to 
the  spirit,  courage,  health,  and  ability  of  those  other 
pioneers,  their  forbears,  who  hewed  the  American 
Union  out  of  the  wilderness  of  North  America,  and 
wiped  even  the  Great  American  Desert  off  the  map. 
Some  of  them  are  people  of  means,  to  whom  their 
groves  are  pastimes  pleasant  during  the  winter  season. 
Others  are  kept  awake  nights  considering  the  imperative 
necessity  of  making  both  ends  meet.  Of  mere  book- 
learning  some  have  much,  and  some  little ;  none,  how- 


330  CUBA 

ever,  are  ignorant.  They  are  by  no  means  afraid  of 
work;  the  men  labor  in  their  groves,  and  the  women 
in  the  homes.  Sons  and  daughters  help ;  decidedly, 
there  is  no  deference  paid  to  idleness.  And,  as  was 
true  on  the  original  frontier,  these  people  (with  two  or 
three  exceptions)  are  American  born ;  the  natural- 
ized citizen  has  not  yet  arrived  in  any  appreciable 
number. 

As  is  invariably  the  case  when  people  are  busy,  gossip 
is  happily  scarce,  —  or  perhaps  I,  an  outsider,  was  not 
admitted  to  full  discussion.  I  saw  only  neighborly 
good  will  made  manifest.  Jealousy  there  is,  yes,  but 
it  seems  to  be  between  communities,  rather  than 
persons.  Nueva  Gerona  desires  to  be  known  as  the 
only  real  town  on  the  island ;  people  who  live  there  are 
confident  it  is  so.  Other  people  at  Santa  Fe  are  quite 
as  confident  that  Santa  Fe  leads  in  every  respect. 
Settlers  at  Columbia  and  at  Los  Indios  have  their  own, 
very  different,  opinions  on  the  subject.  On  one  point, 
however,  everybody  agrees  :  that  the  Isle  of  Pines  is  the 
finest  spot  on  earth.  No  view  to  the  contrary  is  toler- 
ated. So  omnipresent  and  so  prevailing  is  this  loyalty, 
blended  with  strong 'optimism,  even  a  visitor  is  affected 
by  it  and  must  retire  outside  the  Isle  to  judge  it  reason- 
ably ;  for  as  long  as  he  remains  among  its  settlers  he  will 
find  himself  sharing  their  enthusiasm.  And  since  faith 
moves  mountains,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not 
fertilize  and  irrigate  plains,  and  bring  whatever  fleet 
of  fruit  schooners  or  steamers  may  be  found  necessary 
into  seas  where  they  are  wanted.  The  firm  belief  its 
people  have  in  the  Isle  is  the  surest  pledge  of  its  future 
prosperity. 

The  rivalry  before  mentioned  which  exists  between 
towns  (a  frontier  condition  which  makes  for  improvement 


THE    ISLE    OF    PINES  331 

and  growth)  does  not  disturb  private  or  social  affairs. 
When  an  entertainment  is  given  at  Nueva  Gerona  the 
other  settlements  are  expected  to  send  a  representative 
attendance ;  when  Santa  Fe  entertains,  grief  and  some 
resentment  are  expressed  if  people  from  Nueva  Gerona 
are  not  there.  I  remember  hearing  a  general  invitation 
sent  out  by  announcement :  ^^  Everybody  on  the  Isle/' 
proclamation  was  made,  ^'is  cordially  invited  to  be 
present  next  Tuesday  night/'  etc.  I  inquired  whether 
or  not  this  ^^bid''  might  not  occasion  difficulties. 
^^Why,  no/'  was  the  astonished  response,  ^Hhere  isn't 
anybody  on  the  Isle  we  don't  want,  is  there  ?  "  For  my 
part,  I  couldn't  think  of  any  one  I'd  seen  there  that 
I  objected  to. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  the  absolute  harmony  of  the 
Millennium  Dawn  prevails.  On  the  contrary,  anybody 
can  start  trouble  any  time  by  innocently  inquiring  how 
much  fertilizer  a  citrus  fruit  tree  ought  to  have  at  any 
given,  period,  or,  worse  yet,  how  much  profit  so-and-so 
really  did  realize  from  eggplant  or  honey  or  tangerines  ; 
but  the  private  life  of  the  most  erring  in  matters  of  fer- 
tilizer and  accounts  of  sales  is  —  as  far  as  my  experi- 
ence goes  —  inviolate.  Now  that  I  think  of  it,  how- 
ever, I  do  recall  having  been  told,  amid  much  apologetic 
confusion  on  the  part  of  my  informant,  that  a  certain 
teamster  discovered,  as  we  drove  by,  in  recumbent 
position  under  a  small  wayside  shrub,  was  known  to 
drink ;  had,  in  fact,  so  far  forgotten  himself  as  to  drink 
that  very  morning.  As  his  wagon  rolled  along  home- 
ward he  rolled  from  it  to  the  roadside,  and  there  his 
virtuous  assistant  left  him,  to  recover.  Passers-by  did 
not  disturb  him.  He  was  not  a  permanent  resident  on 
the  Isle,  anyhow.  That  afternoon  it  rained,  and  re- 
vived him,  I  trust,  to  a  realization  of  the  enormity  of 


/" 


332  CVBA 

the  discredit  he  brought  upon  the  Isle,  —  in  the  eyes, 
too,  of  a  visitor  ! 

In  short,  the  prospective  investor  on  the  Isle  of  Pines 
may  rely  on  finding  himself,  on  arrival,  in  the  midst  of 
as  pleasant  a  community  as  he  could  discover  anywhere. 
He  will  be  made  one  in  a  hard-working,  intelligent,  hos- 
pitable settlement ;  the  men  will  give  him  voluble  ad- 
vice as  to  soils,  insecticide,  and  methods  of  cultivation, 
while  the  women  will  teach  his  wife  to  make  mango 
pie  and  sorrel  wine  and  guava  cobbler.  He  himself 
will  have  little  leisure  to  seek  for  amusement ;  but  if 
he  does  find  time  for  it,  there  is  fishing  and  hunting 
at  hand.  Neither  will  wife  and  daughters  be  lonely; 
there  are  the  Hibiscus  Club,  the  Embroidery  Club,  the 
Card  Club,  the  Santa  Fe  Social  Club,  the  Pioneer 
Club,  the  Carnation  Club,  the  Casas  Club,  —  in  all  of 
which  and  still  others  they  will  find  congenial  com- 
panionship. 

There  is  also  the  American  Federation,  —  not  a  social 
organization  nor  yet  a  business  association.  It  exists 
for  the  mutual  good  of  Americans  resident  on  the  Isle, 
and  to  defend  their  legitimate  interests  when  occasion 
requires.  It  considers  complaints  made  by  Americans 
against  Cuban  officials ;  it  insists  upon  impartiality  in 
public  services  (post-office,  taxation,  police).  Long 
without  occasion  for  activity,  it  has  recently  met  to 
consider,  for  instance,  schools. 

There  is  an  American  Club,  and  various  business- 
men's associations. 

^The  principal  interest  of  Americans  on  the  Isle  of 

Pines  is  citrus  fruit  culture.  They  have,  one  and  all, 
devoted  themselves  to  that,  to  the  very  detrimental 
neglect  of  every  other  consideration.  ^^And  whereas,'^ 
to  quote  Franco  (his  criticism  emitted  in  1792  applies  in 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Pines  of  the  Isle 

The  Isle  of  Pines  was  named  because  of  its  pine  trees,  not  its  pineapples,  —  which,  however, 
are  the  biggest  and  the  juiciest  on  record;  8,  10,  12  and  14  lbs.  is  their  weight. 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

A  Young  Isle  Grove 


TEE    ISLE    OF    PINES  333 

1910),  ^Hhey  might  live  well  on  grains,  tubers  and  vege- 
tables which  that  soil  will  produce  in  repayment  of  very 
little  exertion  on  their  part,  —  whereas  they  might  busy 
themselves  in  raising  poultry,  .  .  .  thus  getting  their 
sustenance  without  expending  their  capital,  —  they 
nevertheless  prefer  to  exist  .  .  /^  —  not,  to  be  sure, 
now,  as  then,^oir~^lt  meat,  but  on  canned  meats 
(''even  fresh  meat  is  to  be  had  only  on  'killing'  days''), 
on  condensed  milk  ("Milk,  another  of  their  foods,  is  not 
always  to  be  had"),  and  on  tinned  vegetables  imported 
in  large  lots  at  the  very  time  the  consumers  proclaim, 
by  advertisements  and  word  of  mouth,  the  Isle  of  Pines 
to  be  the  "greatest  truck  gardening  possibility  in  the 
western  hemisphere."  ^ 


I  visited  the  Isle  of  Pines  in  1908  as  special  agent  of  the  Cuban 
department  of  agriculture  (Provisional  Administration)  :  I  was  most 
particularly  impressed  by  the  lack  of  fresh  foodstuffs  on  even  the  best 
tables  there.  At  the  hotel  in  Nueva  Gerona  we  sickened  of  canned 
goods,  —  there  were  even  canned  tomatoes,  when  within  two  miles 
of  the  town  fresh  tomatoes  were  rotting  on  the  dying  vines  in  the  yard 
of  a  discouraged  settler.  Of  course,  there  were  one  or  two  gardens, 
—  notably  Jones'  Jungle,  whose  provident  owner,  thanks  to  a  little 
irrigation  plant,  some  foresight,  and  a  willingness  to  rise  betimes 
and  care  for  his  truck,  was  making  a  bit  of  money  selling  it  at  high 
prices  to  his  neighbors.  I  asked  one  rather  husky  young  man  who 
seemed  endowed  with  more  common  sense  than  the  average  why  he 
did  not  raise  at  least  the  commonest  vegetables  for  his  own  consump- 
tion. He  replied  with  considerable  asperity,  for  himself  and  part- 
ner: "We  are  citrus  fruit  growers,  I'd  have  you  understand."  I 
fancy  he  spoke  for  the  Isle,  which  had  not,  at  that  time,  stirred  to  the 
movement  now  interesting  all  colonies  on  Cuba  proper  in  a  "safe 
and  sane"  development  of  their  lands  to  homely,  indigenous,  sure 
crops,  to  sell  in  the  immediate  home  market.  This  country  has  had 
almost  enough  of  "fancy  tropical  farming." 

In  this  connection  it  interested  me  to  note  that  I  was  but  the 
latest  of  a  procession  of  special  agents  who,  each  in  his  hour,  inves- 
tigated the  Isle  of  Pines,  commencing  with  Franco  in  1797,  and  in- 
cluding Granville  Fortescue  in  1908,  every  one  of  whom  commented 
at  length  and  none  too  flatteringly  upon  the  improvidence  of  the 


334  CUBA 

I  had  occasion  to  investigate  the  customs  record  of 
direct  importation  into  the  Isle  for  the  fiscal  year  1907- 
1908,  and  found  hay  (retail  price,  $40  a  ton  average) 
to  constitute  the  largest  single  item  of  direct  importa- 
tion; fertilizer^  which  I  was  assured  was  thQ^laxgfist 
individual  item  in  freight  receipts,  is  distributed  from 
Havana,  and,  having  paid  duties  there,  does  not  enter 
into  the  calculation  of  direct  importation.  In  this  list, 
oats  was  second,  and  corn  fourth ;  in  their  enthusiasm 
these  citrus  fruit  growers  have  neglected  to  provide 
pasture,  or,  if  necessary,  to  plant  forage  for  their  draft 
animals.  The  third  largest  item  was  canned  vegetables ; 
fifth,  canned  fruits^;  sixth,  soap  (with  which  not  the 
most  captious  critic  will  find  fault) ;  and,  seventh, 
condensed  milk.  • 

Only  recently  have  some  few  land  companies  begun, 
I  understand,  to  practice  ffie^wisdom  of  urging  their 
customers  to  make  themselves  comfortable  immediately 
on  arrival,  in  a  house,  not  a  tent,  with  a  garden  about  it, 
with  irrigation,  and  a  pasture  lot  in  the  vicinity  planted, 
in  part,  at  least,  to  forage.  This  done,  it  is  time  enough 
then  to  expend  energy  and  cash  on  a  citrus  fruit  grove 
it  takes  years,  considerable  capital,  and  incalculable 
hard  work,  to  bring  to  profitable  bearing.  Because  he 
did  not  take  these  precautions  to  save  his  money  (ex- 
penditures which  must  be  made  are  heavy  at  their 
lightest),  and  also  himself  (for  the  work  entailed  is  hard 
and  wearing),  many  a  man  who  expected  to  find  an 
easy  fortune  in  the  Isle  of  Pines  dropped  there,  instead, 

pinero  in  not  "getting  his  sustenance  without  expending  his  capital." 
That  part  of  my  report  which  dealt  with  the  point  was  written  be- 
fore, in  looking  up  the  past  history  of  the  Isle,  I  came  upon  their 
identical  views,  worded  even  more  strongly  than  I  had  ventured  to 
put  mine. 


^THE    ISLE    OF   PINES  335 

what  he  possessed,  and  was  forced  to  abandon  his  hold- 
ing and  the  country. 

This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to  discuss  soils  (there  are 
several  varieties  on  the  Isle),  nor  fertilization  (impera- 
tively necessary),  irrigation  (which  actual  growers  find 
advisable  to  have  at  least  handy  in  case  of  need) ,  methods 
of  cultivation,  pests,  stock,  varieties,  cost  of  living, 
equipment,  labor,  picking,  packing,  and  transportation.^ 
These  are  matters  into  which  each  prospective  investor 
must  look,  and  look  carefully,  for  himself.  He  will  do 
well,  by  the  way,  to  visit  not  only  the  Isle,  but  other 
parts  of  Cuba,  and  to  investigate  possibilities  not  only  in 
citrus  fruit  culture,  but  in  very  different  fields  of  agricul- 
ture and  horticulture,  before  committing  himself  and 
his  savings ;  especially  does  he  owe  it  to  himself  not  to 
buy  or  undertake  the  cultivation  of  land  ^^ sight  unseen^' 
on  the  spur  of  enthusiasm  induced  by  land-company 
Uterature. 

But  it  is  the  time  and  the  place,  it  seems  to  me,  to 
remark  that,  despite  all  obstacles  (there  are  some),  the 
Americans  on  the  Isle,  of  Pines  are  succeeding.  They, 
in  this,  like  the  Romans  in  martial  campaigns,  have 
not  perceived  when  they  were  defeated ;  against  pre- 
cedent, all  reason,  and  the  anticipation  of  onlookers,  they 
are  ^^making  good.^'     The  sugar  estate  which  existed  at 

1  Shipping  expenses,  every  item  included  from  the  dock  in  the 
Isle  of  Pines  through  sale  in  New  York,  according  to  shipping  papers 
lent  me  by  Mason  Brothers,  shippers,  from  which  I  cast  an  average, 
are  proximately  $1.64  per  box,  on  grape  fruit.  This  is  exclusive  of 
the  cost  of  production,  picking,  packing,  and  hauling  to  the  dock. 
It  is  easy  to  deduce  (estimating  these  omitted  items,  adding  their 
total  to  $1.64,  and  comparing  it  with  prices  for  which  oranges  sell) 
why  few  oranges  are  exported  from  either  the  Isle  of  Pines  or 
Cuba,  expenses  there,  too,  being  about  the  same.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  margin  of  profit  on  grape  fruit,  if  the  fruit  is  good  (as  care 
will  make  it)  and  the  market  right. 


336  CUBA 

Bibijagua  is  gone;  its  fields  are  grass-covered,  and  the 
walls  of  its  factory  have  crumbled  to  the  ground.  The 
plantation  house  at  Las  Nuevas,  once  the  center  of  a 
principality,  is  a  scattered  ruin,  haunted,  they  say,  by 
the  ghost  of  a  suicide.  With  the  country  places  which 
were  its  pride,  the  old  regime  has  vanished.  The  great 
estates  that  belonged  to  the  Zelabers,  the  Zayas,  the 
Duartes,  and  the  Acostas,  divided  into  ten,  twenty, 
and  thirty-acre  groves,  are  the  property  now  of  Smith, 
Jones,  and  Johnson.  Amid  the  disappearing  wreckage 
of  what  was,  these  are  building  anew,  in  their  own  way. 
In  place  of  the  almost  feudal  conditions  which  prevailed 
from  the  day  Captain  Pedroso  received  the  Isle  entire, 
a  kingly  gift  from  his  monarch,  through  the  supremacy  of 
the  Duartes,  down  to  D.  Andres  Acosta's  succession, 
a  new  regime  exists  :  it  is  democratic,  energetic,  individ- 
ual, and  all- American. 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE    NORTH    COAST 

Havana  to  Santiago 

My  first  acquaintance  with  Cuba  east  of  Havana 
was  made  in  September  of  the  year  1900,  when,  not  ^4n 
a  nutshell/'  as  the  Spanish  song  has  it,  but  aboard  the 
stout  Herrera  liner,  the  Julia,  we  set  out  for  Porto  Rico 
on  a  holiday.  I  recall  it  was  night  as  we  left,  and  that  as 
Morrows  light  with  its  attendant  satellites,  festooning 
the  coast  from  Cabanas  on  the  left  hand  to  Vedado  on 
the  right,  dropped  below  our  horizon,  there  was  left  to 
record  that  setting  of  our  only  constellation,  a  faint 
glow  against  a  close  and  clouded  sky.  Indefinite  gray 
distance  was  everywhere,  —  above,  below,  and  round- 
about. 

The  second  day  one  yellow  promontory  broke  into  the 
monotony  of  our  eastward  course.  We  turned  to  our 
fellow  passengers  for  amusement.  Among  them  I  re- 
member there  were  a  bride  and  groom,  Cubans,  who  sat 
together  in  chairs  on  the  deck,  like  ^4ove  birds''  on  a 
perch.  There  was  a  Spanish  wine  merchant,  from  whose 
bearded  face  looked  out  the  finest  qualities  of  his  nation- 
ality, minus,  it  seemed  to  me,  all  objectionable  character- 
istics. There  was  a  Hollander,  —  a  Dutch  traveling 
man,  —  who  was,  literally,  too  big  for  his  stateroom,  so 
he  slept,  we  discovered  one  night,  uncomfortably  curled 
all  around  the  smoking  room.  There  was  an  American, 
z  337 


338  CUBA 

on  a  ''big  deaP'  bent,  who  landed  at  Santo  Domingo 
and  disappeared  into  the  interior,  from  perils  of  which  he 
escaped,  however,  for  I  have  seen  him  since.  There  was, 
to  complete  the  collection,  a  Porto  Rican,  —  talkative, 
vivacious,  —  who  amused  us  with  many  a  good  story. 
He  discoursed  at  length  on  one  occasion  concerning 
Spaniards  and  knives,  explaining  effective  grips  and 
blows,  with  rich  detail  of  many  bloody  encounters. 
''When  a  Spaniard  comes  at  you  with  a  knife,''  was  his 
advice  to  our  assemblage,  "meet  him  with  a  bigger  one, 
or  run!''  He,  so  he  said,  when  confronted  by  this 
dreadful  dilemma,  had  taken  the  latter  course  at  full 
speed.  At  nightfall  the  revolving  light  at  Paredon 
marked  our  turning  slightly  south. 

Next  dawn  found  us  anchored  under  the  tower  at 
Maternillos  Point,  awaiting  break  of  day  to  light  us 
through  the  winding  channel  that  is  the  entrance  to 
Nuevitas  Bay.  We  stood  under  the  bridge,  and  watched 
as  the  Julia  glided  forward,  to  the  rattle  and  clank  of 
the  wheel  sounding  loudly,  like  a  strange  echo,  to  the 
captain's  brief  commands.  On  each  side  of  us  were 
low  black  banks.  White  birds  flew  up  from  wooden 
posts  marking  our  course.  We  emerged  into  open 
water,  beside  three  shapeless  isles  of  rock,  sparsely 
covered  with  bush.  A  sudden  turn,  and,  after  fifteen 
miles'  meandering,  we  beheld  the  town  of  Nuevitas  ;  we 
dropped  anchor  some  distance  out.  I  recall  that  we 
went  ashore  in  a  small  boat,  that  we  landed  on  a  wooden 
pier,  and  that  an  American  in  uniform  watched  us  curi- 
ously. Unerring  instinct  led  us  to  a  hotel.  The  loaded 
board  of  the  good  ship  Julia  was  to  us,  through  all  that 
trip,  Tantalus'  own  table  ;  we  could  not  eat  of  the  dishes 
provided,  for  they  were  flavored  one  and  all  with  garlic 
and  with  oil.     We  bribed  the.  steward,  once,  to  bring 


THE    NORTH    COAST  339 

US  boiled  eggs  between  meals,  a  favor  for  which  he  gave 
us  to  understand  he  ran  grave  danger  of  irons,  the  yard- 
arm,  the  plank  itself.  We  consigned  the  eggs,  after 
very  slight  investigation,  to  the  sea,  with  great  grief  but 
scant  ceremony  of  burial.  Therefore,  seated  at  the 
hotel  table,  in  Nuevitas,  when  they  brought  us  fresh 
eggs,  fresh  milk,  fresh  bread,  we  ate  and  ate  and  ate. 
The  Spanish  wine  merchant  joined  us,  replenished  the 
supply  of  food  before  us  once  or  twice,  and  watched  us 
reduce  it  to  shells,  crumbs,  and  empty  glasses,  with 
amusement  that  was  obvious.  He  paid  the  bill, 
with  insistent  Spanish  politeness ;  my  conscience 
is  clear  that  we  permitted  it,  for  I  feel  confident  that  as 
an  exhibit  of  the  marked  capacity  of  American  women, 
in  literal  sense,  we  were  his  money's  worth.  Refreshed 
and  strengthened,  we  fared  forth  to  see  the  town.  All 
I  remembered  afterwards  was  one  wide  street.  At  each 
end,  on  rising  ground,  was  a  round  fortlet.  Together, 
they  commanded  that  avenue,  and  with  it,  the  place 
entire.  We  had  the  curiosity  to  approach  one  of  these 
^^blockhouses,''  and  found  the  weeds  grown  over  the 
path  to  it ;  there  were  no  steps  to  the  doorway,  cut  half- 
way up  in  the  wall.  Presently  the  train  from  Puerto 
Principe  came  in ;  we  returned  to  the  Julia,  where  new 
companions  joined  us.  We  steamed  awa^^  again  past 
the  three  whale-like  islands,  through  the  channel,  banks 
of  which  the  magic  of  sunlight  had  changed  from  black 
to  green,  into  the  open  sea,  southward,  and  on. 

Lately,  we  revisited  Nuevitas,  approaching  it  this 
time  from  inland,  via  the  railway  from  Puerto  Principe, 
or,  I  should  say,  Camaguey,  for  in  1902  the  old  Indian 
name  was  restored  to  that  city  and  to  the  province 
of  which  it  is  the  capital.  We  were,  on  this  occasion, 
en  route  to  La  Atalaya,  formerly  a  ^^  very  famous  sugar 


340  -  CUBA 

estate/^  and  now  a  cosmopolitan  cattleman's  country 
home,  about  which  a  small  citrus  fruit  colony  has 
developed.  We  found  the  city  much  the  same,  after 
nine  years;  we  recognized  the  main  street,  the  round 
towers,  even  the  hotel ;  from  the  same  wooden  pier 
we  entered  into  a  little  sailboat,  and  skimmed  away,  in 
southeasterly  direction  across  the  bay,  to  Guiros  Inlet, 
and  up  that  arm  of  smooth,  brackish  water,  between 
thick  mangroves  that  effectively  cut  off  the  breeze. 
The  boatman  rowed.  It  was  so  still  that  ripples  from 
his  oars,  and  in  the  vessel's  wake,  sounded  loud  against 
the  tangled  roots  of  those  unfriendly  trees,  as  the  little 
waves  washed  up  and  down  among  the  oysters  incrust- 
ing  their  boles  and  lower  branches,  like  extraordinary 
rime.  Fish  we  were  told  were  tarpon,  in  their  frolics 
made  now  and  then  commotion  about  the  boat,  actu- 
ally splashing  us  with  drops  of  water.  Overhead  wild 
fowl  sailed,  black  specks  against  the  sky.  This  seemed 
to  be  an  untouched  wilderness. 

From  the  landing,  however,  which,  far  up  Guiros 
Inlet,  is  the  first  sign  to  the  contrary,  a  made  road  leads 
inshore.  It  is  evident  that  once  it  was  macadamized  in 
no  mean  fashion,  for  stones  and  bricks  from  which  the 
top  dressing  has  worn  away  keep  it  in  condition  still  for 
wheeled  vehicles  to  travel.  None  met  us  as  we  clam- 
bered from  our  boat,  however,  for  notice  of  our  coming 
had  preceded  us  by  little  time,  —  in  fact,  had  not 
preceded  us  at  all,  but  arrived  after  we  did.  We  walked 
up  the  road,  therefore,  and  found  that  presently  it 
leaves  the  mangroves  on  sand  flats,  where  land  crabs 
scuttle,  becoming  an  avenue  on  firmer  ground  beside 
which  a  few  tall  cocoanut  palms  remain  like  survivors 
of  a  loyal  guard  assembled  after  disastrous  attack. 
It  climbs  a  hill,  and  we  climbed  with  it  among  ruins : 


THE    NORTH    COAST  *  341 

crumbling  walls  and  rusted  machinery,  half-hidden 
under  rank  vegetation;  past  three  broken  columns 
of  an  entrance,  probably  to  a  church ;  by  an  inclosure, 
evidently  a  garden,  —  relics,  these,  of  the  old  estate. 

La  Atalaya  means  the  Watchtower,  and  we  sought 
a  tower.  Above  us,  instead,  lordly  and  secure,  loomed 
a  modern  residence,  seated  upon  the  very  summit  of  the 
hill.  Built  of  stone,  shingle,  and  lattice,  it  is  most 
American  outside,  and  equally  so  inside,  we  found  as 
we  entered,  down  to  the  detail  of  paper  on  the  walls. 
We  ascended  to  the  veranda,  and  there,  for  the  first  time, 
met  the  owner.  This  was,  for  an  instant,  an  ordeal; 
we  had  arrived  '^unheralded  and  unsung,'^  on  business 
connected  with  the  citrus  fruit  colony,  which  had  not, 
I  think,  Mr.  Saucier^s  entire  approval.  I  have  seldom 
experienced  such  elation  of  flattery,  I  cannot  refrain  from 
adding,  as  was  mine  when,  in  the  instant  of  that  ordeal, 
we  were  weighed  by  the  Bostonian  in  this  man  and  not 
found  entirely  wanting  ;  therefore  the  Texan  he  became 
in  long  years'  residence  in  that  genial  state,  accepted 
us,  with  the  French  courtesy  to  which  Mr.  Saucier 
was  born,  in  Paris  !  We  were  shown  to  the  guest 
chamber,  and  the  housekeeper,  whose  name,  but  not  her 
pleasant  personality,  I  have  forgotten,  was  summoned  to 
place  the  conveniences  of  the  house  at  our  disposal.  We 
were  welcomed  to  easy  chairs  on  the  wide  veranda; 
and  here  we  learned  what  the  lattice  work  on  which  the 
building  seems  to  stand  hides  from  view  :  nothing  less 
than  the  missing  watchtower  !  We  were  permitted  to 
see  for  ourselves  how  cleverly  Mr.  Saucier  has  made 
the  octagonal  fort  he  unearthed  from  the  hilltop  serve 
as  the  foundation  for  his  house.  To  such  use  has  he 
humbled  that  stronghold,  built,  none  remember  how  long 
ago,  as  a  lookout,  doubtless,  against  sea  rovers,  who, 


342  CUBA 

to  enter  Nuevitas  Bay,  must  thread  the  same  channel  the 
Julia  negotiated,  every  turn  of  which  is  visible  from  this 
height,  as  well  as  is  a  long  reach  of  the  coast  outside,  and 
the  towns,  inland  and  on  the  bay,  to  which,  spying  a  sus- 
picious sail  in  the  offing.  La  Atalaya  was  in  position  to 
signal  a  call  to  flight  or  to  arms. 

From  the  veranda  we  ^^  viewed  the  landscape  o'er/^ 
Immediately  below  us  were  citrus  fruit  groves,  in  all 
about  seventy  acres  at  the  time;  among  them  stood 
the  comfortable  frame  homes  of  the  few  settlers  already 
established.  Looking  beyond  these,  however,  I  was 
more  interested  in  what  I  did  not  see  than  I  was  in 
what  I  saw. 

Father  Antonio  Perpina,  who  visited  this  district  in 
1866,  has,  in  his  book  ^^Camaguey,^^  left  a  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  the  vicinity  at  that  period,  and  this  was  in  my 
mind.  The  priest  had  ridden  northward  from  the 
city  of  Camaguey  to  San  Miguel.  San  Miguel  is  still 
on  the  map ;  it  was  then  the  principal  town  in  all  the 
Mayanabo  district.  Its  population  was  1400,  Father 
Antonio  states,  and  along  its  wide,  smoothly  graded 
streets  were  stores  which  supplied  the  trade  of  a  flourish- 
ing region.  There  were  tanneries,  manufactories  of 
yarey  hats,  and  through  San  Miguel  en  route  to  Baga, 
on  th^  neighboring  Bay  of  Nuevitas,  passed  large  quanti- 
ties of  valuable  woods,  tobacco,  guanos,  hides,  and, 
above  all,  sugar,  molasses,  and  sirups,  for  shipment 
away  by  sea.  From  San  Miguel  the  traveled  road  led 
down,  as  it  does  yet,  to  this  port,  and  the  priest  followed 
it,  on  his  journey.  ^^ Between  San  Miguel  and  Baga,^' 
he  writes,  ^^we  saw  nothing  but  canefields  stretching 
away  in  every  direction.  To  our  left  were  the  Ingenios 
La  Caridad,  El  Recreo,  and  San  Antonio,  while  on  our 
right  were  Las  Casimbas,  Las  Flores,  and  La  Atalaya.^' 


THE   NORTH    COAST  343 

The  highway  paralleled  the  railroad,  in  operation  then 
between  Guaimaro  and  Baga.  As  the  priest  and  the 
party  with  him  went  cantering  along  upon  their  spirited 
horses,  the  train  bore  down  upon  them.  They  raced 
it  with  might  and  main,  and.  Father  Antonio  relates,  the 
horsemen  were  in  the  lead  when  the  engineer,  piqued 
by  the  taunts  of  his  passengers,  threw  open  the  throttle 
and  filled  the  air  with  smoke  and  sparks  and  extra  noise 
attendant  upon  his  greatest  possible  velocity.  ^^The 
passengers  cheered  loudly,  exhorting  us  to  greater  en- 
deavour. The  very  earth  shook  under  the  flying  feet 
of  our  horses,  and  reverberated  with  the  sound  of  grind- 
ing carwheels. ''  The  priest,  who  had  not  fallen  behind 
in  the  running,  chronicles  with  regret  that  the  railway 
and  the  highroad  parted  company  before  the  race  was 
decided. 

Baga  was  —  the  shadow  of  it  is  yet  —  on  the  south- 
west shore  of  Nuevitas  Bay  opposite  the  channel  en- 
trance to  that  sheet  of  water.  It  affords  anchorage  to 
schooners  and  whatever  other  light-draft  vessels  will 
honor  it  in  its  decay.  Baga  is  supposed  to  be  the  site 
of  the  original  settlement,  which  later,  moving  inland 
to  escape  pirate  raids,  became  with  time  the  present 
provincial  capital  of  Camaguey.  The  village  numbered 
two  hundred  inhabitants  when  Father  Antonio  visited  it 
in  1866 ;  its  most  imposing  buildings  then  were  ware- 
houses. Now,  I  was  solemnly  assured  when  I  inquired, 
its  most  interesting  feature  is  its  abandoned  cemetery, 
where  one  American,  accidentally  drowned  in  the  bay, 
lies  buried  among  the  dead  of  a  dead  town. 

From  Baga  Father  Antonio  journeyed  the  short  dis- 
tance necessary  to  reach  La  Atalaya.  It  belonged  then 
to  one  Sr.  D.  Jose  Planas  y  Sucona.  Buildings  around 
his  residence  formed  quite  a  village  upon  the  hill  about 


SU  CUBA 

which  his  cane  fields  lay.  He  was  lord  over  about  seven 
thousand  acres  of  cultivated  land  and  woodland,  sa- 
vanna and  seashore.  He  owned  rivers  and  a  lake  and 
ocean  inlets.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  slaves  labored 
as  he  commanded.  His  dumber  cattle  pastured  on 
great  ranges.  From  the  watchtower  on  the  summit 
above  his  residence,  Father  Antonio  looked  out  upon  a 
scene  which  enraptured  him :  ''What  a  view  of  all  the 
Bayatabo  district !  It  was  a  clear  and  quiet  morning ; 
the  sun,  appearing  from  the  folds  of  a  cloud  of  gold, 
poured  his  light  splendidly  upon  the  country,  far  and 
wide.  To  the  north  we  saw  perfectly  the  great  bay, 
upon  its  surface  resting  darkly  the  Ballenatos,  native 
haunt  of  wild  birds,  those  three  islets  of  shapeless 
rock,  which,  rising  above  the  quiet  stretch  of  sur- 
rounding waters,  seem  to  dominate  all  their  neighbor- 
hood. A  little  to  the  eastward  we  saw  the  long  channel 
which  gives  entrance  to  the  bay,  and  we  discerned  the 
lighthouse  on  Maternillos  Point.  We  could  distin- 
guish all  the  lonely  peninsula  Del  Sabinal,  while  fur- 
ther off  the  Atlantic  lay,  scintillant  as  the  sunlight  fell 
upon  its  waves.  The  city  of  San  Fernando  de  Nue- 
vitas  was  to  the  northwest,  resting  upon  the  slope  on 
which  it  is  built.  The  white  walls  of  its  holy  church 
showed  like  a  luminous  bulwark  aglow  on  the  horizon. 
To  the  east  we  saw  San  Luis  Hill  and  the  wide  estates 
of  Sabanalamar,  Nuevas  Grandes,  and  Santa  Lucia, 
the  properties  of  residents  in  Camaguey.  All  to  the 
south  and  west  were  sugar  plantations  and  cattle 
ranges  and  tobacco  fields  and  gardens,  watered  by  the 
Arenillas  River,  which  takes  its  course  through  that 
pleasant  countryside,  pouring  finally  its  crystalline 
waters  into  the  clear  current  of  the  Saranaguacan.  All 
this  wonderful  panorama  lay  bathed  in  magic  light  as 


THE   NORTH    COAST  345 

I  looked  down  upon  it  that  clear  calm  day,  from  the 
watchtower  seated  so  proudly  upon  its  hill.'' 

The  day  it  was  our  good  fortune  to  overlook  the  scene 
described,  from  the  American  home  built  now  upon 
that  humbled  watchtower  as  a  firm  foundation,  a  heavy 
rain  blew  in  from  the  sea.  It  advanced  in  darkening 
clouds  from  the  surface  of  the  Atlantic,  blotting  from 
view  the  country  to  the  eastward  where  Sabanalamar, 
Nuevas  Grandes,  and  Santa  Lucia  are  names  now,  for 
very  little  cultivation  and  wider,  neglected  areas.  Few 
are  the  traditions,  even,  which  remain  of  palmier  days. 
It  dropped  an  impenetrable  curtain  between  La  Atalaya 
and  Maternillos  Point,  and  over  the  long,  winding  chan- 
nel which  still  leads  ships  in,  around  the  three  shape- 
less islands,  still  the  favorite  haunt  of  wild  fowl.  The 
church  at  Nuevitas,  faithful  through  all  change,  shone 
brilliantly  as  of  old  on  the  distant  slope  where  the  town 
clings  yet.  The  rain  beat  down  on  deserted  Baga,  and 
the  route  of  the  railway  train  the  priest  and  his  caval- 
cade raced  so  valiantly :  trains  and  tracks  have  van- 
ished, —  hardly  more  enduring  than  the  smoke,  the 
sparks,  the  noise  of  their  transient  endeavor.  Finally, 
it  shut  out  every  detail  of  that  panorama  save  the  near- 
lying  citrus  fruit  groves  of  the  American  newcomers ; 
these  tossed  their  leaves,  green  and  shining,  welcoming 
the  storm.  The  house  on  the  hill  and  its  close  neighbors 
were  alone  in  wind  and  rain.  But  when  the  tempest 
had  passed,  with  vivid  lightning  and  resounding  thun- 
der, all  the  picture  reappeared,  refreshing  and  brightened, 
like  a  canvas  an  expert  has  retouched.  One  looked  in 
vain,  nevertheless,  for  the  cane  fields,  the  tobacco 
plantations,  the  gardens  that  Father  Antonio  saw  from 
La  Atalaya  as  he  looked  down.  War  and  neglect 
have  wiped  them  out. 


346  CUBA 

The  next  stop  the  Julia  made,  beyond  Nuevitas,  on 
that  eastward  journey  of  ours  along  the  north  coast, 
jwas  at  Gibara.  The  first  detail  our  glasses  rested  upon 
as  we  looked  shoreward  from  anchorage  in  the  bay, 
was  Old  Glory,  never  so  brilliant  as  then,  held  out  by 
the  wind  against  the  sun,  setting  behind  hills  of  emerald. 
The  bay  curves  inshore  like  a  horseshoe.  The  village 
is  on  the  western  side.  A  lighthouse  stands  on  the  point 
opposite. 

We  rowed  to  land  and  wandered  along  the  unpaved, 
oil-lit  streets,  chancing  at  last  on  Calle  Real,  evidently 
the  main  business  avenue,  which  seems  to  fall  down  a 
steep  hill.  We  promenaded  through  the  plaza,  with 
its  blue  kiosks  facing  the  twin  towers  of  a  yellow  church. 
We  saw  the  Union  Club  lighted  for  a  ball,  and  at  a 
member^s  invitation  entered,  and  were  pleased  with 
the  hall,  the  library,  the  billiard  room. 

Morning  found  the  Julia  still  at  anchor  with  three 
hundred  head  of  cattle  aboard  to  be  lifted  out,  one  after 
the  other,  by  the  horns  into  lighters.  Having  time,  we 
returned  ashore,  engaged  the  finest  carriage  available,  — 
a  collection  of  old  iron,  firewood,  and  rags  bound  toge- 
ther by  mutual  sympathy,  —  and  directed  the  coach- 
man to  exhibit  Gibara. 

He  drove  westward  through  a  village  of  thatched 
huts.  Naked  children  ran  forth  in  droves  and  then  ran 
back,  fetching  their  elders  to  see  Americans.  Beyond 
these  suburbs  we  found  Sifinca,  the  only  estate  accessible, 
the  coachman  said.  It  consisted  of  two  whitewashed 
huts,  a  lone  bullock  by  his  cart,  and  a  half-plowed 
field  the  size  of  a  building  lot.  From  there  on,  a  wild 
growth  of  prickly  plants  so  hedged  the  road  we  lost 
interest  and  returned  toward  town.  We  made  a  detour 
along  the  seashore  past  what,  our  driver  said,  had  been 


THE    NORTH    COAST  347 

the  American  cemetery  while  the  garrison  was  there. 
He  assured  us  that  all  bodies  had  been  removed ;  dis- 
appointed buzzards  ornamented  the  fenceposts  and 
circled  thick  overhead.  We  passed  a  blue  blockhouse, 
on  our  way  back,  and  went  through  a  breach  in  gray 
walls  that  once  surrounded  the  town,  from  which  an 
enterprising  alcalde  had  been  supplying  stone  for  road 
repairs.  We  got  safely  over  streets  of  positive,  com- 
parative, and  superlative  badness,  to  which,  obviously, 
the  walls  had  not  been  applied,  and,  by  another  block- 
house and  an  arched  gateway,  where  beggars  sat, 
emerged  upon  a  road  that  became  a  trail  just  beyond 
the  railroad  bridge.  The  bridge,  a  modern  steel  struc- 
ture, had  fallen  from  its  masonry  foundation  into  the 
water ;  the  tracks  had  been  raised  on  a  wooden  frame  to 
enable  trains  to  continue  through,  despite  the  mishap. 
Our  coachman  told  that  two  insurgents  with  a  bomb 
blew  up  the  bridge,  a  fort  guarding  it,  and  ten  Spanish 
soldiers ;  probably  the  Spanish  version  would  have 
reversed  the  figures,  and  the  truth  have  agreed  with 
neither,  but,  at  all  events,  the  bridge  was  down  when  we 
saw  it,  and  beyond  it  there  was  no  road,  but  the  rail- 
way track  wavered  away  into  a  country  I  know  now 
ceases  at  a  very  little  distance  northward  from  the  coast 
to  be  as  desolate  and  unpromising  as  I  remember  it 
about  Gibara.  From  Holguin,  whither  one  may  arrive, 
with  vicissitude,  via  that  railroad  and  another  it  meets 
somewhere  near  Chaparra,  I  have  ridden  into  the  inter- 
vening district  on  horseback  and  found  it  a  region  rich 
beyond  compare.  All  along  the  ^^  royal  road^'  which 
exists,  in  official  imagination,  between  Holguin  and 
Gibara,  its  port,  there  are  ruined  blockhouses,  which, 
by  signals  at  least,  maintained  communication  in  war 
times  between  the  interior  city  and  the  coast. 


^^ 


348  CUBA 

Between  Gibara  and  Baracoa  we  passed  Banes  and 
Nipe  Bays  without  entering.  It  was  not  until  nine 
years  later  that  we  came  down  to  them,  by  land,  and 
visited  there  mines,  sugar  mills,  fruit  plantations,  on 
shores  that,  had  we  explored  in  1900,  we  must  have 
found  uninhabited  and  wild. 

We  arrived  next  day  at  the  oldest  city  in  Cuba,  — 
Baracoa  la  Bella, — first  capital  of  the  island,  from  where 
spread  Spanish  exploration  and  settlement.  Here 
Velazquez  had  his  seat.  Here  Panfilo  de  Narvaez  and 
Hernando  Cortes,  both,  along  with  minor  characters  in 
famous  scenes,  made  their  debut  in  history. 

We  dropped  anchor  in  a  landlocked  harbor,  a  sheet 
of  water  round  and  perfect  as  an  illustration  to  the  de- 
finition of  ^^bay^'  in  primary  geography.  Ashore,  we 
breakfasted  on  eggs,  —  on  boiled  eggs,  although  we  are 
by  no  means  overfond  of  these.  We  had,  however, 
already  discovered  that  Cuban  cooks  have  not  yet  in- 
vented means  to  introduce  either  oil  or  garlic  into  an 
unopened  boiled  egg ;  the  outside  they  make  fragrant 
and  greasy,  but  the  inside  they  perforce  respect,  — 
the  only  limitation,  this,  I  have  found  on  their  use  of 
the  two  objectionable  ingredients  we  sought  to  escape 
by  demanding  boiled  eggs.  I  recall  that  the  eggs  we 
got  at  Baracoa  that  day  might  have  been  improved  by 
association  even  with  oil  and  garlic,  for  they  seemed  to 
antedate  the  establishment  wherein  they  were  served, 
by  a  considerable  period;  it  was  ''The  Twentieth 
Century  Hotel.''  As  we  were  making  the  best  of  our 
bad  bargain  an  American  looked  in  at  the  door,  hailed 
us  without  formality,  demanding  to  know  if  we  were 
indeed  American  women ;  on  our  confirming  his  hopes 
that  we  were,  he  asked  and  received  permission  to  join 
us.     We  were,  he  said,  the  first  American  women  he'd 


THE    NORTH    COAST  349 

beheld  in  half  a  year.  From  him  we  learned  that  there 
were  at  the  time  ten  soldiers  of  the  famous  colored 
Tenth  Regiment,  three  officers,  two  civilians,  and  an 
American-made  typewriting  machine  in  Baracoa.  He 
praised  the  climate,  the  scenery,  the  salubrity,  the  cocoa- 
nuts,  of  Baracoa,  and  advised  us  to  see  the  church  and 
the  cross  in  it  Columbus  is  supposed  to  have  set  up  here. 
We  found  this,  —  it  is  small,  black,  tipped  with  metal, 
—  an  object,  evidently,  of  special  veneration;  it  oc- 
cupies an  altar  garlanded  with  paper  roses,  a  wonderful 
flora  that  flourished  on  every  shrine  in  the  church,  in 
luxuriance  and  coloring  truly  tropical. 

We  climbed  to  the  sky-blue  fort  on  the  hill,  and  were 
shown  the  rock  on  which  the  First  Admiral  is  supposed 
to  have  stood,  overlooking  the  country  he  later  de- 
scribed, according  to  Las  Casas,  as  ''  so  beautiful  that  one 
never  wearies  to  see  it. '^  Hereabouts,  if  it  was  really 
here  that  he  landed,  Columbus  found  trees  and  fruits  of 
marvelous  flavor.  The  air  was  pleasant,  —  neither  too 
hot  nor  too  cold,  as  they  had  found  it  elsewhere ;  little 
birds  sang  day  and  night,  and  the  Spaniards  were  de- 
lighted with  this  approach,  as  they  supposed  it,  to  the 
rich  empire  of  the  Grand  Khan.  There  were  humble 
native  settlements  in  sight,  from  whose  people  they 
inquired  by  gesture  for  gold  and  pearls.  They  called 
the  place  Rio  de  Mares,  and  from  here,  if  Las  Casas 
is  right,  as  many  contend  he  is  not,  in  supposing  it  was 
at  Baracoa  Columbus  landed,  in  the  last  days  of  October, 
1492,  he  continued  a  short  distance  westward,  —  per- 
haps only  to  Nipe,  or  to  Banes,  or,  as  some  authorities 
maintain,  to  Nue vitas  Bay.  The  honor  of  this  first  land- 
ing of  Europeans  on  Cuban  soil  has  been  claimed  for 
Nipe ;  and  again,  with  more  show  of  reason,  it  seems  to 
me,  for  Banes  Bay.     Be  this  disputed  point  as  it  may. 


350  CUBA 

Baracoa  was,  at  all  events,  the  first  settlement  of  Euro- 
peans in  the  island.  Others,  to  complete  Velazquez's 
seven  cities,  were  founded  later,  and,  especially  Santi- 
ago de  Cuba,  at  her  expense. 

As  we  wandered  about  Baracoa,  we  were  seized  upon 
by  a  fellow  passenger  whose  home  and  destination  was 
here.  She  carried  us  to  her  house,  a  beautiful  and 
spacious  residence;  she  summoned  ^Hhe  family '^  in 
numbers  to  come  sit  about  and  admire  us,  her  friends. 
She  served  us  refreshments,  loaded  us  with  flowers, 
assured  us  that  Baracoa  liked  Americans.  One  of 
^Hhe  family ''  had  been  in  Boston  with  the  Cuban  teach- 
ers sent  there  to  summer  school  a  little  while  before ; 
this  lady  had  reported  favorably  upon  the  United 
States  and  its  people,  by  and  large.  We  carried  away 
a  very  grateful  recollection  of  this  incident. 

We  walked  down  to  Fort  Punta,  garrisoned  by  an 
American  corporal,  a  Cuban  policeman,  and  a  horse. 
The  Cuban  showed  us  a  bathing  place,  —  used,  if  I 
remember  rightly,  by  the  women  of  town  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  by  men  in  the  afternoon ;  it  was  out  of  hours, 
but  we  requisitioned  towels,  and  the  key  to  its  gate. 
Having  stationed  the  policeman  on  guard,  we  securely 
locked  the  gate,  descended  the  stone  steps,  and,  having 
hung  our  clothes  '^on  a  hickory  limb,''  or  a  substi- 
tute therefor,  we  invaded  that  water.  How  cool  and 
clean  the  waves  surged  into  this  tiny  cover,  screened  all 
about  by  bushy  cliffs  !  Never  was  bath  so  ineffably  de- 
lightful as  that  one  !  It  was  the  first  we'd  had  since  we 
left  Havana,  for  the  Julia,  visible  to  us  as  we  splashed 
—  she  rode  at  anchor  not  far  away,  —  had  no  parti- 
cular conveniences  for  comfort  such  as  cleanliness. 
There  was,  to  be  sure,  '^ water,  water  everywhere,"  but 
not  a  bathtub  aboard  in  which  to  make  good  use  of 


THE   NORTH    COAST  351 

part  of  the  superfluous  supply.  We  had,  when  the  hot- 
test days  were  at  their  hottest,  considered  asking  the 
captain  to  tow  us  astern  by  a  hne. 

We  watched  Anvil  Mountain  by  Baracoa  fade  into 
blue  haze,  with  keen  regret  to  lose  the  town  so  soon. 
The  propeller  drove  us  onward  through  seas  of  a  color 
that  paled  even  the  deep-tinted  sky  above  us ;  by  a 
shore  of  endless  green  hills  and  valleys ;  through  a 
glorious  sunset,  into  misty  twilight  and  a  moonlit  night. 
We  saw  lights  ashore  that  to  seafarers  mean  Maysi 
and  Guantanamo. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


SANTIAGO   DE   CUBA 


From  here  my  conquerors  fared  forth, 
Departing  southward,  west,  and  north 
To  bring  new  empires  to  my  sway  — 
And  souls  to  God.  .  .  . 

—  From  "  The  King  of  Spain." 

We  approached  Santiago  de  Cuba  on  our  way  back 
from  Porto  Rico  and  Hayti,  before  dawn  on  a  morning 
early  in  October.  The  moon,  riding  in  the  zenith, 
grew  paler  as  we  neared  the  welcoming  lights  along 
Morro  (headland).  The  twilight  of  daybreak  lay  on 
the  hills  as  we  came  under  the  hidden  battery,  Zocapa. 
A  small  boat  glided  out  of  the  darkness  of  the  channeFs 
mouth  to  question  our  entrance  there.  The  captain's 
quick  reply,  '^El  Julia,  ^^  answered  the  challenge, 
and  we  moved  on,  without  a  sound  to  herald  us,  the 
engines  muffled  at  quarter  speed,  black  waters  yielding 
thickly  as  we  advanced. 

I  have  since  visited  Morro  Castle,  under  shapeless 
walls  of  which  we  passed  that  morning.  To  reach  it 
we  drove  out  from  the  city  through  a  rather  wild  region, 
over  a  good  road,  each  bend  in  which  developed  some 
new  vista,  especially  of  the  bay.  A  pass  must  be  obtained 
before  travelers  are  admitted,  and  this,  together  with  an 
ambulance  to  convey  us,  Mr.  Rosado  had  obtained  from 
officers,  war-time  friends  of  his,  who  had  shown  us  the 
barracks  and  soldier  life  there.  We  found  Morro  Castle 
a  dilapidated  ruin.     Stripped  of  cannon,  its  walls  are 

352 


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SiBONEY,    NEAR    SANTIAGO    DE     CUBA MONUMENT    TO     ShAFTER's     CoMMANI) 

ERECTED   ON    SiTE    OF  AMERICANS'    LANDING   IN    1898 


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I'hotogravh  by  American  Photo  Company 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  853 

crumbling  away.  Its  dungeons,  to  which  we  descended 
by  long  flights  of  steps  on  the  seaward  face  of  the  forti- 
fication, leak  daylight  through  unhinged  doors.  The 
floors  were  strewn  with  old  torn  copies  of  the  Saturday 
Evening  Post  and  the  Christian  Science  Monthly. 
From  the  battlements  the  visitor  looks  down  upon  the 
narrow,  winding  channel  which  gives  meager  entrance 
to  the  bay  :  the  city  is  good  six  miles  distant  in  a  straight 
line.  The  islet  of  Smithes  Key  is  immediately  below : 
it  seems  one  might  toss  a  biscuit  into  the  front  door  of 
its  diminutive  chapel.  We  saw  the  spot  where  Hobson 
sank  the  Merrimac;  projecting  masts  no  longer  mark 
the  place,  as  they  did  when  the  Julia  went  by.  We 
stretched  our  eyes  toward  Daiquiri  and  Siboney,  where 
the  American  invaders  landed  in  1898.  Commercial- 
minded  that  I  am,  I  was  more  interested  in  the  approx- 
imate situation  of  the  iron  mines  of  Juragua,  —  camp 
of  another  and  more  important  American  invasion.  I 
desired  to  know  just  where  it  is  that  the  land  thrusts 
that  closed  flst  into  the  sea  which  Richard  Harding 
Davis^s  ''  Soldier  of  Fortune ''  was  intent  to  make  let  go 
its  riches  at  his  will.  The  geography  of  this  vicinity  is 
that  of  the  novel.  Along  the  coast  we  overlooked 
Cervera's  fleet  was  burned  and  sunk  when,  in  1898,  it 
came  out  to  lose,  with  the  battle  that  day,  His  Most 
Catholic  Majesty's  last  hold  upon  this  New  World,  once 
so  largely  his,  thanks  to  the  prowess  of  the  Conquerors 
who,  in  their  time  faring  forth  from  this  same  harbor 
under  happier  auspices,  added  it,  empire  by  empire,  to 
the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Spain. 

From  here  it  was,  in  1518,  that  Grijalva  sailed,  west- 
ward along  the  south  coast  of  Cuba,  to  the  discovery 
of  Yucatan.  Hernando  Cortes  cleared  from  Santiago 
for  the  conquest  of  Mexico.     Later,  Panfilo  de  Narvaez 


354  CUBA 

led  eighteen  ships  and  a  thousand  and  more  men  from 
this  same  harbor  toward  the  Aztec  capital,  where,  far  from 
curbing  Cortes,  as  intended,  they  became  his  reinforce- 
ments. In  1538,  Hernando  de  Soto,  successor  to  the 
first  governor's  honors,  landed  at  Santiago  de  Cuba  and 
from  here  marched  overland  to  Havana,  gathering 
men  and  mounts  for  his  expedition  into  Florida. 

Santiago  is  to  me  by  far  the  most  interesting  city  in 
Cuba,primarily  because  it  has  taken  so  prominent  a  part 
in  the  history  not  only  of  Cuba,  but  also  in  that  of 
Spanish  conquest  of  the  mainlands,  and  in  the  explora- 
tion of  regions  which  to-day  are  populous  states  of  the 
North  American  Union.  I  regret  exceedingly  that 
I  have  not  resided  there,  for  through  residence  I  should 
have  learned  more  than  the  little  I  know  of  the  place.  I 
have  revisited  it  half  a  dozen  times  within  the  last  year, 
making  the  journey  from  Havana  via  the  Cuba  Rail- 
road, thanks  to  which  the  traveler  nowadays  is  enabled 
to  accomplish  in  twenty-four  hours  the  destination  we 
reached  in  1900,  only  after  days  spent  loitering  along  the 
north  coast.  Yet  the  route  we  took  was,  at  the  time, 
the  only  practicable  way ;  the  alternative  was  to  go  from 
Havana  to  New  York  and  from  there  to  Santiago. 
The  Cuba  Railroad,  connecting  the  west  and  the  east 
of  Cuba  through  the  center  of  the  island,  was  not  com- 
pleted until  1902.  Its  importance  —  especially  its 
political  importance  —  is  not  likely  to  escape  those 
who  were  brought  to  realize,  by  personal  experience,  as 
we  were,  that  previous  to  its  completion  the  second  city 
of  the  republic  of  Cuba  was  as  far  removed  from  its 
capital  as  is  Galveston  or  Newport  News. 

Baracoa,  Bayamo,  Trinidad,  and  Camaguey  were 
settlements  already  established,  and  an  expedition  had, 
furthermore,  partially  explored  the  island  as  far  west 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  355 

as  a  district  known  as  Havana,  when,  in  1514,  Diego 
Velazquez  decided  upon  Santiago,  and  summoned  set- 
tlers with  their  Indians,  from  Baracoa  especially,  to  help 
build  and  to  inhabit  the  new  town,  laid  in  its  present 
location,  which  was  desirable  because  the  harbor  is 
landlocked  and  defensible,  and  is,  moreover,  within 
easy  access  of  the  city  of  Santo  Domingo,  where  the 
First  Admiral,  Columbus,  resided  then,  in  whom  vested 
the  government  of  the  New  World.  Also,  the  Spaniards 
had  discovered  copper,  and,  they  hoped,  gold,  in  the 
neighboring  hills.  The  beginnings  of  Santiago  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  made  along  the  water  front  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  present  customhouse,  but  if  Velazquez's 
residence  occupied,  as  is  said,  the  site  of  the  Union  Club 
building,  the  new  town  must  shortly  have  grown  up- 
hill to  embrace  what  is  now  known  as  Cespedes  Park. 
I  presume  this  has  always  been  the  principal  plaza, 
inasmuch  as  the  cathedral  faces  upon  it :  this  church 
is  to  this  day  the  most  imposing  edifice  in  the  city,  — 
how  mightily  then  must  its  twin  towers  have  lorded  it 
over  Santiago  in  earliest  years.  Within  this  sanctuary 
(long  the  master  church  of  the  island)  Diego  Velazquez 
was  buried,  and  forgotten;  his  resting  place  was  a 
mystery  to  history  until  his  tombstone  was  identified 
not  long  ago  by  its  half-erased  inscription.  Its  defaced 
and  melancholy  angels  are  objects  of  interest  now,  in 
the  museum. 

By  the  time  Velazquez's  successor,  Hernando  de  Soto, 
had  cleared  from  Havana  bound  to  his  destruction  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  Cuba  was  almost  depopulated  of 
Spaniards,  few  of  whom  resisted  news  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  Cortes  and  the  Pizarros,  remaining  here  to 
work  for  a  piece-of-eight  when  more  might  be  had  for 
the  taking  in  Mexico  and  Peru.     Those  who  did  stay 


356  CUBA 

fell  out  among  themselves,  and  the  history  of  each  settle- 
ment in  the  island  at  this  period  is  the  chronicle  of  petty- 
intrigue  and  treachery ;  from  Santiago  the  ^'  under 
dogs'^  in  its  particular  squabbles  were  shipped  to  Spain 
in  chains  and  disgrace. 

By  1551,  Santiago  was  reduced  to  very  little  impor- 
tance. Corsairs  insulted  the  city  with  impunity.  On  July 
10,  1553,  French  pirates  landed  four  hundred  men,  and 
marched  into  the  place,  holding  it  at  their  pleasure  for 
a  month.  They  demanded  and  received  $80,000  ran- 
som. It  was  at  this  time  that  many  families  deserted 
Santiago  for  Bayamo,  giving  to  the  inland  city  an  im- 
petus toward  greater  development. 

Next  an  earthquake  jarred  the  neighborhood.  San- 
tiago's cathedral  was  ruined,  and  in  1580  the  principal 
prelates  betook  themselves  to  Havana.  Santiago  was, 
however,  still  the  seat  of  the  bishopric. 

In  1607,  the  island  of  Cuba,  which  theretofore  had  been 
one  jurisdiction,  and  Santiago  the  head  of  it,  was  divided 
into  two.  Havana  was  made  the  capital  of  the  western 
half,  Santiago  retaining  authority  over  the  east.  Cap- 
tain Juan  de  Villaverde  Oseta,  former  commander  of 
Morro  Castle  at  Havana,  was  made  first  governor  of 
this  reduced  area.  It  was  he  who  established  a  lookout 
on  the  heights  above  the  mouth  of  Santiago  harbor, 
where  later  another  Morro  Castle,  destined  to  become 
even  more  famous  than  Havana's,  was  built,  in  1664. 

When  the  English  seized  Jamaica  they  also  threatened 
Santiago,  but  Spain  rallied  enough  men  into  the  city  to 
make  an  attempt  upon  it  not  advisable.  Yet  on  Octo- 
ber 18, 1662,  nine  hundred  English  landed  at  Aguadores, 
a  beach  near  the  city.  Don  Pedro  de  Morales,  in  com- 
mand of  Santiago,  had  but  two  hundred  men,  and  these 
the  invaders  easily  dispersed.     Women  and  children 


I 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  357 

fled  to  the  interior.  Forces  on  garrison  duty  on  Morro 
Heights,  having  witnessed  the  discomfiture  of  the  city^s 
defenders,  followed  after.  The  English  took  possession 
of  Santiago.  They  were  angered  at  finding  little  booty, 
and  promptly  burned  up  everything  inflammable,  using, 
moreover,  a  lot  of  powder  to  blow  up  the  few  edifices  the 
fire  had  not  consumed.  They  did  not  respect  even  the 
cathedral.  They  stayed  a  month  among  the  ruins 
they  had  made,  while  the  Spaniards  hung  about  the 
outskirts  of  the  city,  as  near,  even,  as  El  Caney,  which 
was  their  headquarters.  The  English  withdrew  only  on 
hearing  that  reinforcements  were  coming  to  the  Spanish 
from  Trinidad,  and  that  a  combined  attack  was  planned. 
When  they  left  they  carried  off,  as  almost  their  sole  plun- 
der, two  hundred  boxes  of  sugar  from  two  nearby  mills, 
the  cathedral  bells,  a  few  black  slaves,  and  the  artillery 
which  had  been  abandoned  on  Morro.  They  were 
really  starved  out,  for  the  Spanish  had  prevented  the 
entrance  of  ships  which  might  have  brought  supplies, 
and  had  also  cut  off  communication  with  the  interior. 

The  next  governor,  Bayona  Villanueva,  shipped 
Morales  to  Spain  in  chains  for  incompetency.  He  then 
proceeded  to  build  Morro  Castle  and  the  three  comple- 
mentary batteries,  ruins  of  which  are  visible  yet  from 
the  castle  walls.  From  1664  to  1670  Santiago  pros- 
pered. Smuggling  was  carried  on  largely  with  Jamaica. 
'^  All  that  is  lacking,  ^'  one  bitter  complaint  reads,  ^'is  for 
Santiago  to  declare  herself  English. '^ 

In  1679,  another  earthquake  occurred  and  another 
piratical  invasion  threatened.  Franquesnay  disem- 
barked, but  was  beaten  back,  along  with  his  eight  hun- 
dred men. 

Fighting,  smuggling  with  French  and  English,  suffer-/ 
ing  earthquakes,  fires,  and  unwelcome  attentions  from 


358  CUBA 

buccaneers,  Santiago  passed  the  decades.  At  one  time 
one  governor  with  armed  men  was  trying  to  uphold  his 
authority  from  his  stronghold  at  Cobre,  while  another, 
newly  arrived  from  Havana,  was  asserting  his  su- 
premacy in  the  city  itself.  The  European  wars  of  succes- 
sion brought  their  concomitant  excitement  to  Santiago. 
In  1704,  Chaves  equipped  two  frigates  and  descended 
on  Providencia  and  Siguatei,  isles  of  the  Bahamas ;  he 
killed  a  hundred  English,  captured  as  many  prisoners, 
and  got  away  without  mishap.  This  feat  won  for  San- 
tiago her  honors  as  ''Very  Noble  and  Very  LoyaP'  City. 

Having  had  a  taste  of  the  business,  her  people 
promptly  set  up  as  corsairs  on  their  own  account. 
They  captured  enemies'  vessels,  saved  a  Spanish  galleon 
attacked  by  British  off  Cartagena,  and  Hoyo  Solorzano, 
made  governor  in  1711,  fished  up  four  million  dollars 
from  a  ship  which  had  been  sunk  in  the  Bahama  channel. 
It  was  alleged  that  he  did  not  deliver  all  of  it  to  the 
government  authorities,  either,  but  the  people  of  Ca- 
maguey  liked  him  none  the  less  for  that,  when,  being 
threatened  with  arrest  by  enemies  he  had  made  in  San- 
tiago, because  he  opposed  smuggling,  he  hacked  his 
way  out  of  a  body  of  armed  men  sent  to  arrest  him, 
and  rode  pellmell  into  Puerto  Principe  for  refuge. 

In  1744  Spain  engaged  in  war  with  Great  Britain. 
An  expedition  under  Vernon  —  the  same  for  whom 
Mount  Vernon  was  named  —  landed  at  Guantanamo. 
It  is  said  that  George  Washington  was  a  member  of  it, 
though  I  have  not  been  able  to  prove  or  disprove  this. 
General  Wentworth  marched  from  Guantanamo  on 
Santiago.  The  loyal  Tir adores  de  Tiguabo  (Tiguabo 
Sharpshooters)  made  his  advance  so  unpleasant  that 
he  desisted,  and  eventually  the  English  (minus,  thanks 
to   Spanish  marksmanship  and   Cuban  fevers,   about 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  359 

two  thousand  of  the  good  men  who  landed)  sailed  for 
Jamaica,  leaving  behind  on  the  site  of  the  town  of 
Cumberland  they  had  attempted  to  found,  dead  bodies, 
provisions,  and  firearms.  The  landing  of  this  expedi- 
tion, disastrous  for  the  British,  advanced  the  interests 
of  Santiago,  for  Spanish  authorities,  brought  to  realize 
how  fatal  a  mistake  it  would  be  to  permit  the  British 
to  seize  that  city,  forthwith  established  in  it  a  large 
force  of  men.  From  this  event  dates  its  renewed 
importance. 

As  the  war  with  England  progressed,  Santiago  inter- 
ested herself  in  it.  Sea  robbers  who  served  Spain  by 
despoiling  her  enemies  made  their  headquarters  here : 
they  wrested  from  the  British  shiploads  of  sugar,  rum, 
slaves,  and  all  varieties  of  provisions.  On  April  8, 
1747,  eight  British  ships-o'-the-line  attempted  to  enter 
Santiago  harbor;  but  the  Spanish,  firing  from  Morro 
and  the  three  assistant  batteries  at  the  harbor^s  mouth, 
drove  them  back.  Knowles,  the  English  commander, 
considered  landing  at  Aguadores,  but  of  this,  too,  he 
thought  better,  and  refrained.  When  Havana  fell 
into  English  hands  in  1762,  Santiago  and  all  the  other 
cities  of  the  island  prepared  to  march  to  her  delivery  : 
only  the  announcement  of  peace  impending  prevented 
their  attempting  the  rescue. 

D.  J.  M.  Perez,  in  the  second  volume  of  Bacardi's 
^^  Chronicles, ''  has  described  the  Santiago  of  1800. 
Simplicity  of  dress  was  then  the  rule :  tHe  women's 
best  attire  consisted  of  silk  skirts  and  waists  of  fine 
batiste;  the  men  wore  embroidered  silk  shirts,  long 
embroidered  coats,  and  short  trousers.  Precious  stones 
were  not  used.  The  favorite  dance  was  the  minuet, 
accompanied  by  verses  sung.  There  were  but  two 
orchestras  in  the   city;    their  members  were  negroes 


360  CUBA 

who  played  one  or  two  clarinets,  one  or  two  violins, 
two  trompas  (peculiar  horns),  a  bass  violon,  and  a  bombo 
(drum)  called  a  tambora.  Religious  processions,  of 
which  there  were  many;  '^saints'  days'';  judios  (lit- 
erally, ''  Jews,''  —  a  celebration  on  the  Saturday  before 
Easter,  which  consists  in  destroying  an  effigy  of  Judas) ; 
marriages,  baptisms,  the  election  of  mayor,  —  all  alike 
ended  in  a  ball  at  which  the  refreshments  were  agualoja 
y  Sangria  (sweetened  and  spiced  water).  The  young 
men  went  forth  on  foot  on  holidays,  for  there  were  no 
quitrines,  and  only  eight  or  ten  calesas  (chaises), — 
vehicles  emblematic  of  luxury  invading  the  simple  life. 
They  promenaded  the  streets  with  their  sweethearts, 
—  or  flew  kites,  tying  them  captives  to  the  doorposts 
of  the  girls  they  most  admired.  In  those  days  break- 
fast was  served  at  eight  in  the  morning,  dinner  at 
twelve  or  one,  and  supper  at  nine  o'clock.  After 
dinner  Santiago  slept  the  siesta  until  three.  When 
priests  appeared  from  the  cathedral,  closed  doors  were 
opened,  and  ladies,  carefully  arrayed,  appeared,  to  pose 
in  the  windows  and  on  the  balconies.  In  the  afternoon 
friends  exchanged  visits,  announced  beforehand ;  choco- 
late was  served  with  fancy  breads  and  guava,  orange, 
or  lemon  preserves.  At  vespers  the  callers  went  home, 
there  to  receive  intimates.  A  little  later  there  sounded 
over  the  town  the  whacking  blows  with  which  cooks 
were  preparing  jerked  beef  with  rice  for  supper.  After- 
wards, perhaps,  one  heard  a  violin,  or  voices  singing, 
to  a  guitar,  the  peculiar  and  plaintive  ballades  of  the 
time,  or  again,  the  passing  tread  and  the  lantern  lights 
of  a  belated  party  seeking  home ;  then  silence  through 
the  unpaved,  littered,  steep,  and  narrow  streets.  If  the 
moon  shone  full,  it  threw  sharp  shadows  from  fluted 
eaves,  odd   cornices,  and   overhanging  balconies   and 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  361 

windows,  barred.  The  night  watch  passed,  crying 
^^Sereno  /'^  and  lovers  dodged,  —  or  perhaps  that  bulk 
in  the  corner  was  an  escaping  slave,  off  to  the  ^^stock- 
ades'' and  their  defiant  liberty. 

In  1803  or  about  thatjfcime  27,000  French  emigres^ 
fleeing  from  Hayti  where  the  Hacks  had  gained  control, 
came  into  eastern  Cuba,  settling  especially  around 
Santa  Catalina.  Santiago,  province  and  city,  pros- 
pered greatly.  The  newcomers  did  much  to  develop 
the  culture  of  coffee  and  cacao ;  ruins  of  many  exten- 
sive estates  exist  in  the  mountains.  They  brought 
with  them  other  manners  and,cus.toms  than  those  that 
were  Santiago's  own ;  some,  like  the  round  dance,  were 
adopted,  adapted,  and  survive.  In  their  social  inter- 
course with  the  orientales  (natives  of  Santiago)  they 
engendered  bitterness,  as  the  words  of  a  certain  song, 
given  in  Bacardi's  ^^  Chronicles,"  would  indicate.  In 
1808,  Spain  being  at  war  with  Bonaparte,  all  who  in- 
sisted on  retaining  French  allegiance  were  compelled 
to  leave  the  island ;  most  departed  into  Louisiana. 
Some  returned  in  1814.  Others  at  once  gave  up  their 
French  citizenship  and  allied  themselves  definitely  wiih, 
Cuba.  The  lower  classes  of  Santiago  speak  a  French- 
Spanish  patois  to  this  day.  Some  of  the  best  families  x 
are  of  French  descent  and  bear  French  names.  In  the  / 
surburban  villages  of  Cristo,  San  Vicente,  Cuabitas,  ' 
it  is  easy  to  fancy  French  influence  evident  in  intensive 
cultivation,  and  in  the  very  appearance  and  construc- 
tion of  the  pretty  villas  in  their  gardens,  in  the  vales 
and  on  the  hillsides. 

There  is  in  Santiago  itself  (Spanish  colonial  as  it  is, 
in  large  externals)  something  exotic,  —  a  certain  general 
effect  due,  it  seems  to  me,  to  especially  daring  combina- 
tions in  color ;   because  a  fetching  combination  or  con- 


362  CUBA 

trast  in  color  is,  to  an  American,  ^^very  French/'  for 
lack  of  another  term  Santiago  seems  ^^Frenchy/' 
especially,  I  presume,  to  those  of  us  whoVe  not  seen 
France.  Others  have  called  Santiago  a  ^^ dream  city,'' 
laboring,  evidently,  to  word  this  same  appreciation  of 
something  exceptional  to  the  everyday.  Visitors 
whose  experience  acknowledges  ^  ^  skyscrapers ' '  and 
'^brownstone  fronts"  as  normal  are,  certainly,  inclined 
to  pinch  themselves  to  see  if  they  are  awake,  when,  gaz- 
ing up  a  narrow  street  in  Santiago,  they  behold  sea- 
green  and  mauve  houses,  royal  purple  and  indigo  houses 
trimmed  in  lavender^  pink,  yellow,  orange,  scarlet,  with 
red-tiled  roofs  and  glassless  windows  in  sky-blue  frames. 
The  buildings  are  usually  of  one  story,  and  the  skyline 
they  present,  would,  as  a  study  in  angles,  confound 
Euclid  ! 

Despite  this  very  artistic  appearance,  Santiago  is  a 
practical  and  busy  town.  In  population^j[45^470),  and 
also  in  trade  and  commerce,  it  is,  and  has  been  for  very 
many  years,  the  second  city  in  Cuba.  Its  business 
streets  are  frequented ;  its  stores  are  well  stocked,  but 
especially  its  wholesale  establishments,  and  the  ware- 
houses and  offices  of  its  merchant  traders  are  active. 
There  is  nothing  of  sloth  here,  but  instead  an  alertness 
of  wit  and  execution  most  untropical,  had,  possibly, 
not  only  from  the  French  whose  arrival  it  antedates, 
but  also  from  association  with  the  English,  across  the 
way  in  Jamaica,  with  whom  the  orientales  were  always 
as  ready  to  trade  as  they  were  to  fight,  preferring 
usually  to  combine  business  and  battle,  for  Santiago 
used  to  whip  the  English  when  she  could,  even  while 
she  grew  rich  off  smuggling  with  British  possessions  ; 
and  the  fact  that  she  won  titles  and  praise  from  the 
Spanish  king  for  besting  the  French  at  their  own  law- 


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Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

A  Street  in  Santiago  de  Cuba 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  363 

less  game  on  the  high  seas,  did  not  deter  her  from  traffick- 
ing in  slaves  and  rum  with  the  isles  France  owns  down 
around  Martinique,  in  the  face  of  his  angry  opposition. 

Finally,  the  long,  hard  wars  Cuba  waged  with  Spain 
for  her  independence  were  especially  felt  in  the  east. 
Santiago  Province,  now  known  as  Oriente,  boasts  that 
it  was  always  the  hotbed  of  patriotism,  and  trouble ; 
the  ^^ Cries''  (declarations)  of  Yara  and  Baire  which 
began  the  Ten  Years'  War  and  the  Revolution  of  1895, 
respectively,  were  both  upraised  within  her  boundaries. 
Pino  Guerra  occasioned  considerable  astonishment 
and  no  little  indignation  here,  when,  in  1906,  he  inaugu- 
rated ^^The  Little  War  of  August,"  elsewhere  than  in 
the  east.  As  though  in  sullen  remonstrance  at  such 
infringement  on  her  historic  privilege  to  open  hostili- 
ties, of  whatever  nature,  Santiago  remained  quiet 
during  that  ^^ picnic."  ^  It  is  understood,  however,  that 
she  will  not  be  less  than  the  first  to  commence  it,  should , 
another  similar  outing  be  found  opportune  at  any  time. 

The  only  real  fighting  done,  on  land,  in  the  Spanish- 
American  War  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Santiago  in  1898. 
The  city  was  regularly  besieged.  Noncombatants 
fled,  as  they  had  done  many  a  time  before,  into  the  sur- 
rounding country;  the  weary  defile  of  women  and 
children  marched  then,  footsore  and  afraid,  over  the 
same  routes  that  fine  macadamized  highways  mark 
now,  toward  Cuabitas  and  Cristo,  while  the  Americans 
and  Cubans  attacked  from  the  direction  of  El  Caney. 

Tourists  now  travel  by  guagua,  carriage,  and  auto- 
mobile to  the  heights  that  were  harder  to  win  in  that 
memorable  July.  The  old  church  at  El  Caney  was, 
when  first  I  saw  it  in  1900,  riddled  by  shot  and  shell, 

^  President  Taft's  very  accurate  definition  of  the  latest  Cuban 
revolution. 


364  CUBA 

its  bell  tower  shattered  so  completely  that  little  more 
than  four  uprights  and  some  bits  of  roof  remained. 
The  Texan  who  was  our  guide  on  that  occasion  told 
revolting  details  of  what  he  saw  when,  having  captured 
the  town,  the  Americans  entered  this  building,  which 
the  Spaniards  had  converted  into  a  field  hospital.  I 
revisited  it  last  spring :  they  had  removed  blockhouse 
lean-tos  which  were  there,  nine  years  previous ;  they 
had  repaired  the  tower,  and,  with  paint  and  plaster, 
covered  in  the  walls  the  most  obvious  signs  of  its  cam- 
paign. Images  and  decorations  had  been  returned  to 
the  altars,  but  the  interior  was,  despite  that,  very  deso- 
late indeed.  From  the  church  we  followed  a  trail,  in 
1900,  to  the  creek,  where  we  surprised  a  good  part  of  the 
village  population  at  their  bath ;  thence  ascending  by 
a  steep  way  to  the  fortlet  El  Viso,  on  its  hill  command- 
ing the  immediate  vicinity.  Where  we  then  found 
nothing  at  all  within  four  broken  walls,  we  discovered, 
last  spring,  a  monument  to  Americans  and  Cubans  who 
lost  their  lives  in  the  storming  of  this  insignificant 
blockhouse.  I  looked  over  the  fair  and  peaceful 
country,  —  green  and  gold  fields  stretching  away  to  hills 
of  a  darker  shade,  —  and  tried  to  recall  what  the  Texan, 
himself  a  soldier  in  that  war,  had  said  of  cavalry,  in- 
fantry, artillery,  shelling,  advances,  charges,  and  death 
to  the  tune  of  ''A  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town,''  to 
which  the  Americans  came  on.  I  inquired  of  Mr.  Ro- 
sado,  also  a  veteran  of  that  campaign,  as  to  why,  in 
advancing  on  Santiago,  it  was  considered  necessary  to 
occupy  this  particular  outpost ;  he  explained  that, 
having  been  at  the  time  very  busy  down  the  road  to 
Santiago,  lying  in  wait  for  possible  reinforcements  to 
the  Spanish,  who  might  come  out  from  the  town,  he 
had   not   himself  perceived   the   real  necessity  of  the 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  365 

storming  of  El  Caney.  We  all  agreed,  however,  that  it 
was  ^^a  glorious  victory,^'  which  is,  after  all,  the  object 
of  war.  The  fight  at  Caney  was  no  less  a  glorious 
defeat,  for  the  Spaniards  who  fought  here  inspired  by 
Vara  de  Rey.  The  house  where  that  general  lived  is 
in  the  village ;  the  house  where  he  died  is  on  its  out- 
skirts. In  time,  probably,  his  monument  will  arise, 
here  in  the  town  where  he  did,  at  least,  his  best  for  his 
country's  cause. 

San  Juan  Hill  is  nearer  Santiago  than  El  Caney.  It 
is  within  easy  walking  distance  from  the  end  of  the 
Vista  Alegre  street  car  line.  One  passes  ^Hhe  Peace 
tree, ''en  route,  inclosed  now  by  a  bayonet-tipped  fence. 
Opposite  is  an  imposing  entrance  to  grounds  where  the 
Raja  Yoga  school  is  to  have  its  buildings.  This  is  the 
hill  up  which  Theodore  Roosevelt  charged  to  the  presi- 
dency. In  1900  we  were  able  to  find,  under  the  bushes, 
trenches,  like  scars.  Last  spring  I  had  not  the  enter- 
prise to  look  for  them,  but  contented  myself  with  sitting 
still  in  the  shade  of  imposing  monuments  recently 
erected  on  the  summit. 

A  little  off  the  electric  car  line  by  way  of  which  one 
returns  to  the  city  from  San  Juan  Hill  is  the  hand- 
somest public  school  building  in  Cuba.  It  was  built 
during  the  American  Occupation  in  response  to  the 
initiative  interest  and  a  large  donation  presented  for 
the  purpose  by  a  Mr.  Higgenson  of  Boston  to  his  friend, 
General  Leonard  Wood.  The  materials  are  native 
stone  and  brick.  Its  rooms  are  arranged  according 
to  hygienic  plans;  ventilation  and  lighting  are  excel- 
lent. The  building,  embowered  in  flowers,  stands  in 
large  grounds  where  the  children  are  permitted  to  play. 
It  is,  in  brief,  just  about  such  a  school  —  building  and 
equipment,  —  as  one  finds  in  every  small  city  thi'ough- 


366  CUBA 

out  the  United  States.  It  constitutes,  by  reason  of 
excellencies  which  are  only  the  average  there,  a  dis- 
heartening contrast  with  the  average  here,  for  in  Cuba 
schools  are  usually  conducted  in  small,  dark  rooms 
rented  in  buildings  built  for  other  purposes,  in  locations, 
in  towns  and  cities,  which  make  playgrounds  and 
therefore  health-giving  recreation  impossible.  During 
the  Occupation  a  good  school  system  was  at  least  well 
begun  in  Cuba,  special  credit  attaching  to  Mr.  Fry. 
I  believe  that  President  Palma,  in  his  time,  at  least 
desired  to  maintain  it :  he  had  been  himself  a  teacher 
for  many  years.  During  the  Provisional  Administra- 
tion the  national  Department  of  Public  Instruction 
afforded  luscious  scandals :  misappropriations  were 
long  generally  known,  and  finally  officially  confessed, 
for  which  those  notoriously  guilty  have  not  been  pun- 
ished. What  conditions  are  under  the  present  regime 
I  am  not  accurately  informed,  but  I  know  that  the  work 
has  been  even  further  curtailed  lately  ^^for  lack  of 
funds. '^  If,  as  her  greatest  citizens  have  always  main- 
tained, the  sole  salvation  of  Cuba  lies  in  popular  educa- 
tion, the  day  of  redemption  seems  still  far  off. 

On  the  face  of  a  long,  blank  wall,  which  makes  itself 
very  evident  to  persons  approaching  the  school  build- 
ing, is  a  memorial  tablet.  Along  this  wall  in  Spanish 
times  political  offenders  and  suspects  were  lined  up 
and  shot.  No  record  was  kept  of  the  number  who  died 
here. 

In  another  direction,  a  little  out  of  town,  is  the 
abattoir,  which,  in  1900,  bore  a  bright  blue  sign  an- 
nouncing that  here  officers  and  crew  of  the  Virginius 
were  shot,  in  small  lots,  until  the  British  consul  ended 
the  performance,  in  the  name  of  humanity. 

The  cemetery  is  interesting.     There  is  a  wall  around 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  867 

it  somewhat  thicker  than  a  coffin,  in  which,  in  regular 
rows  hke  shelves,  are  niches  that  just  accommodate  a 
casket  thrust  through  a  square  door  on  the  inner  side. 
Niches  were  for  sale  or  rent,  before  all  were  occupied 
and  ground  burial  came  into  its  present  vogue.  If  the 
occupant's  surviving  friends  or  relatives  failed  to  pay 
the  rent  due,  his  body  was  removed  to  a  grave  in  the 
earth,'  just  outside  the  walls.  Quite  a  city  of  the  dis- 
lodged clustered  around  the  back  gate  when  we  were 
there.  Close  by  were  the  smallpox  and  cholera  colo- 
nies. Near  one  little  door  in  the  wall  at  the  end  of  a 
walk  to  the  left  as  one  enters,  which  was  tightly  sealed 
and  marked  with  two  printed  words,  one,  ^^  Perpetual, '' 
meaning  that  it  had  been  purchased  in  perpetuity, 
and  the  other,  ^^  Smallpox, '^  explaining  why  it  would 
not  be  well  to  disturb  the  tenant,  we  found  another 
engraved,  simply,  ^^ Marti.''  A  few  rusty  crowns  of 
artificial  flowers  garlanded  the  resting  place  of  him 
who  was  the  intelligence  of  the  Revolution  of  1895, 
and  who  asked  in  a  verse  of  touching  simplicity  that, 
when  ^^dead,  without  a  country  but  without  a  master," 
there  might  be  placed  above  him  ^^a  blossom  and  a 
flag."  Elsewhere  we  found  the  tomb  of  Carlos  Manuel 
de  Cespedes.  Here,  too,  lies  Acosta,  captain  in  the 
Spanish  armada  that  went  down  under  Yankee  guns. 
Aboard  the  Julia  when  we  entered  were  two  Sisters  of 
Charity,  an  English  and  a  Spanish  woman.  The  latter 
was  the  sister  of  this  Captain  Acosta,  and  I  see  her  yet 
in  her  robes  of  black  and  white,  as  she  stood  on  deck, 
gazing  toward  where  they  indicated  that  the  cemetery 
lay,  murmuring  softly  to  herself  :  ''Would  that  I  might 
land  and  see  his  grave!"  To  notable  graves  in  San- 
tiago's cemetery  they  have  recently  added  that  of 
Estrada  Palma,  martyr,  if  ever  there  was  one,  to  Cuba's 


368  CUBA 

inability  to  understand  the  fundamental  principles  of 
free  government.  To  his  country  place,  here  in 
Oriente,  whither  he  had  fled  in  actual  poverty,  they 
followed  him  to  hale  him  forth,  dying,  and,  finally,  dead, 
amid  ostentation  of  grief,  and,  possibly,  repentance. 
He  was  given  a  state  funeral,  despite  his  own  well- 
known  objections  and  those  of  his  widow.  They  laid 
him  where  from  his  niche  Marti  may  see  (who  knows  ?) 
how  rests  the  first  president  of  that  ^^free  and  inde- 
pendent republic  ^^  for  which  he,  in  the  pitched  battle  of 
Dos  Rios,  was  fortunate  enough  to  die  early,  with  his 
worst  enemies  before  his  face. 

__Therearenow  many  excellent  drives  around  about  San- 
tiago. The  most  iDeautiful  is  that  to  Boniato  Summit. 
The  road  is  officially  known  as  the  Santiago-San  Luis 
highway.  It  was  constructed,  along  with  others  radiat- 
ing from  the  capital,  when  General  Leonard  Wood  was 
governor.  Colonel  William  M.  Black  being  chief 
engineer.  It  constitutes,  I  am  convinced,  the  very 
commencement  made,  here  in  the  east  in  1901-1902, 
of  the  great  system  of  state  roads  presented  by  this 
same  Colonel  Black,  as  supervisor  of  the  Department 
of  Public  Works,  to  Governor  Magoon  in  1907, 
who,  as  I  have  described,  had  much  done  on  it 
during  his  administration,  especially  in  the  far  west  of 
the  island.  The  road  to  Boniato  Summit  is  known, 
locally,  as  ^^Wood^s  Folly,''  because  it  cost  a  mint  of 
money,  and  led,  to  all  appearance  then,  nowhere  in 
particular.  From  Santiago  it  gleams  away,  white,  into 
the  outlying  villages  of  Cuabitas  and  San  Vicente, 
thence  winding  up  the  face  of  a  high  hill.  The  altitude 
of  the  summit  is  1526  feet,  and  the  traveler  should  make 
the  trip  in  automobile,  for  the  distance  is  twelve  kilo- 
meters and  the  grade  varies  from  5  per  cent  through  an 


PhotograpJi  by  American  Photo  Company 

The  Cemetery  at  Santiago  de  Cuba 

Looking  toward  Marti's  Niche,  which  is  in  the  wall  in  the  background,    Estrada  Palma  lies 
at  the  immediate  left 


PhotograpJi  by  A  nn  rictm  Photo  Company 

A  Back  Steet  in  Santiago  de  Cuba 

In  the  first  house  on  the  right  Cuba's  one  fighting  general,  Antonio  Maceo,  was  bom 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  369 

average  of  8  per  cent  to  a  maximum  of  10  per  cent :  the 
panorama  from  this  point  is  not  equaled  elsewhere. 
The  Vinales  Valley  in  western  Pinar  del  Rio  is  weird ; 
the  view  from  The  Pines,  over  the  Nipe  Bay  country, 
is  instructive ;  but  this,  over  Santiago,  is  more  beau- 
tiful than  either  of  these.  To  right  and  left  are  the 
towering  mountains  of  the  Sierra  Maestra :  at  sunset 
and  at  sunrise  the  light  shows  widest  variation  in  blues 
and  greens  and  shading  gold  along  their  ridges  and  in 
their  deep-cut  valleys.  Below  are  the  party-colored 
villas  of  Santiago's  suburbs ;  just  beyond  is  the  city 
itself,  its  harbor,  and,  deep  blue  in  the  far  distance,  the 
sea.  On  the  return  the  car  descends  steep  grades, 
rounds  quick  turns,  circling  like  a  bird.  The  road  is, 
obviously,  a  masterpiece  of  engineering,  —  admirable 
'^ Folly''  of  a  builder  who  built  wiser  than  they  knew 
who  watched  his  commencement,  here  at  Santiago,  of 
the  greatest  undertaking  in  public  improvements  any 
government  of  Cuba  has  yet  attempted  to  execute. 
Uncompleted,  once  more  it  bides  the  slow  sequence  of 
events.  In  years  to  come  when  memorial  tablets  are 
erected  they  will  bear  the  names  Wood  and  Magoon, 
governors ;  there  will  not,  in  addition  to  these,  be  lack- 
ing another  to  whom  possibly  even  greater  credit 
attaches :  that  of  Black,  engineer,  who,  I  believe,  from 
existing  half-drawn  plans  of  the  Spaniards,  formulated 
the  project  as  it  exists,  began  it,  cherished  it,  revived  it, 
and  was  permitted  to  accomplish  much.  May  he 
return  again  to  take  up  the  task  out  of  the  neglect  into 
which  it  has  once  more  fallen,  and  to  finish  his  high- 
ways, from  La  Fe,  at  the  west  end,  to  Santiago,  at  the 
east,  through  six  provinces  by  way  of  all  their  principal 
towns  ! 

At  the  same  time  that  roads  were  built,  that  is,  dur- 

2b 


370  CUBA 

ing  the  Military  Occupation  (1898-1902),  many  other 
improvements  were  made  in  and  around  Santiago.  The 
city  was  cleaned,  —  it  had  long  been  a  pesthole  of  yel- 
low fever,  a  disease  no  longer  epidemic.  Streets  were 
paved.  Sewers  were  provided,  and  pure  water  was 
piped  in  from  a  reservoir  high  in  the  cool,  fresh  hills. 
This  modernization,  however,  merely  removed  things 
objectionable,  while  respecting  the  original  and  pictur- 
esque. Santiago,  made  neat  and  inviting,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  retaining  all  the  charm  of  her  old  swash- 
buckling days,  when  local  officials  and  respected 
citizens  became  buccaneers  once  they  cleared  Morro, 
when  slavery  and  wealth  and  Creole  beauty  combined 
in  a  regime  the  vestiges  of  which  are  evident  in  the  new 
and  better  renaissance. 

There  is  much  in  the  city  itself,  exclusive  of  its 
environs,  well  worth  seeing.  The  cathedral  contains, 
I  understand,  certain  valuable  carvings.  The  only 
altar  I  remember  was  one  over  which  hangs  Our  Lady 
of  Guadalupe,  Mexico's  Virgin,  in  whose  miraculous 
appearance,  they  say,  the  astute  Cortes  was  secretly 
concerned;  I  should  like  to  know  the  origin  of  this 
particular  replica.  In  the  museum  is  the  best  collec- 
tion I  know  of  relics  of  the  aboriginal  Indians,  together 
with  pennants,  armor,  and  official  regalia  preserved 
from  medieval  times;  there  is  the  tawdry  throne  of 
the  puppet  negro  king  Melchor ;  specimens  of  natural 
history ;  and  mementos  of  the  Spanish- American  war. 
Not  far  from  the  central  plaza  is  the  house  where  the 
poet  Heredia  (who  wrote  in  French  and  wore  French 
laurels)  was  born.  They  say  it  was  at  Santiago  that 
Patti  made  her  debut  under  Gottschalk ;  I  trust  it 
was  to  a  more  enthusiastic  audience  than  recently 
greeted  Calve  when  Santiago  permitted  her  to  pour 


SANTIAGO    BE    CUBA  ,  371 

^'pearls  of  song^'  to  empty  seats.  The  Union  Club  is 
an  institution  of  which  all  Oriente  brags ;  socially  and 
politically  it  commands  consideration.  Hotel  Venus, 
—  a  fountain  splashes  in  the  marble-floored  dining 
room  —  is  known  the  world  over,  especially  where 
traveling  men  do  congregate ;  no  caravansary  in  Cuba 
has  wined  and  dined  more  distinguished  visitors.  The 
single  institution,  however,  which  has  brought  most 
renown  home  to  Santiago  is  Bacardi's  distillery :  beer 
has  not  done  more  for  Milwaukee  than,  for  Santiago, 
has  rum. 

As  is  the  case  with  most  Latin- American  cities,  one 
remembers  Santiagjo'.s,  ylaza  as  vital,  —  the  heart  of  the 
town.  I  recair  it  as  I  saw  it  one  iiight  in  1900,  when, 
awakened  from  sleep,  I  arose  and  went  to  my  window, 
overlooking  it,  under  a  full  moon.  Great  laurels  cast 
on  its  pavements  pools  of  shadow.  From  somewhere 
in  their  depths  men's  voices  rose,  full-noted  and  strong  : 
they  sang,  I  have  not  forgotten,  '^My  Old  Kentucky 
Home,''  then,  after  a  moment's  hesitation,  they  inquired 
melodiously :  — 

"  Oh,  say,  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 
What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight's  last  gleaming?  " 

I  could,  indeed!  From  the  government  office 
building  opposite  the  cathedral  it  floated,  in  moonlight 
so  brilliant  its  proper  colors  glowed  :  the  first  American 
flag  raised  in  Cuba. 

When  next  I  saw  the  plaza,  that  I  recall,  it  was  night 
of  a  carnival  Sunday.  There  was  music  and  serpentinas 
and  laughter  in  the  air.  The  clock  in  the  cathedral 
tower  accused  the  loiterers  below  that  the  hour  neared 
eleven.  We  found  our  places  on  the  veranda  of  Hotel 
Casa  Granda   (so  had  the  mere  boarding  house  we 


372  CUBA 

patronized  nine  years  before  risen  in  excellence  and  in 
rates  !),  and,  ordering  refreshments  to  our  round-topped 
tables,  we  became  part  of  the  evening. 

The  last  time  I  viewed  the  park,  from  that  same 
veranda  where,  about  tables  set  al  fresco,  resident  mem- 
bers of  the  American,  English,  and  Canadian  colonies 
assemble  nightly,  a  round  and  yellow  moon  rode  the 
sky.  Some  of  the  great  laurels  that  had  beautified  the 
square  were  gone,  —  bested  by  storms.  Under  its 
halo  of  electric  lights  the  band  played  danzones  and 
two-steps.  Down  toward  the  station  the  incoming  rail- 
road train  whistled  to  announce  its  belated  arrival. 
Presently,  victorias,  which  are  the  public  carriages  here, 
came  pounding  up  the  paved  streets,  in  a  racing  pro- 
cession, bringing  the  passengers  to  the  principal  hotels. 
There  was  no  stir  of  interest  in  the  blonde  young  offi- 
cers of  the  German  schoolship  Hertha,  who,  swarming 
around  the  prettiest  girl  in  town,  holding  court  on  the 
veranda,  lent  the  requisite  military  touch  to  the  scene. 
In  the  park  the  ^^  merry,  merry  villagers  ^^  continued  to 
circle  round  and  round,  criticising,  courting,  amusing 
themselves  and  each  other.  The  band  brayed  allegro. 
The  moon  brushed  aside  a  cloud  and  threw  the  spothght 
down.  Upon  the  scene  appeared  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  escorted  by  Consul  Holaday.  He'll  never 
have  a  stage  more  delightfully  set  for  him,  anywhere, 
than  was  Santiago's  on  this  occasion  of  his  arrival,  en 
route  to  South  America  on  his  recent  tour. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

OUR  LADY  OF  COBRE 

"  Sweet  Virgin  of  Charity  !  I'll  wear  thy  yellow  color  in  my  coffin, 
—  but  grant  me  this  one  little  thing  !  "  —  From  "  Antonina." 

The  village  of  Cobre-is  some  twelve  miles  distant 
from  Santiago.  We  made  the  journey,  in  1900,  over 
a  road  which  lost  itself  in  rock  heaps  and  pebbly 
creek  beds  half  a  dozen  times.  Many  changes  must 
have  occurred  since  then :  perhaps  the  road  has  im- 
proved since  our  swaying,  creaking  ambulance  strained 
after  its  four  mules,  over  the  stones,  into  the  ruts,  and 
up  and  down  grades  on  that  journey.  Possibly  some 
of  the  quaintness  has  gone  from  that  odd  corner  of  the 
earth,  but  they  cannot  have  altered  much  the  village 
itself,  nor  the  hills  surrounding  it,  which  belched  forth 
red  soil  stained  brilliantly  with  the  copper  that  abounds. 
Mines  at  Cobre  were  worked  by  the  Spanish  in  the  very 
earliest  days  of  the  colony ;  in  their  tunnels  and  shafts 
the  Indians  forced  to  labor  there  died  miserably,  mak- 
ing room  for  sturdier  African  slaves  who  took  their 
places.  Later,  mines,  slaves  and  all  were  abandoned. 
The  negroes,  left  to  shift  for  themselves  for  a  hundred 
years  or  so,  opined  that  they  were  free,  finally,  if  I 
remember  rightly  the  little  I  have  read,  obtaining  recog- 
nition of  that  fact.  An  American  mining  company 
operates  here  now. 

Upon  the  top  of  one  hill  stood,  in  1900,  the_.shrine 
ofJDur  Lady  of  Charity.     I  understand  that  the  build- 

373 


374  CUBA 

ing  has  since  been  almost  destroyed  ;  it  was  undermined 
and  the  foundations  gave  way.  I  do  not  know  what 
roof  shelters  now  that  revered  small  image  of  Mary. 

'^Her  beauty  is  admirable.  She  consoles  all  who 
look  upon  her.  Her  glance  is  pleasant,  yet  so  serious 
that,  without  causing  fear,  it  evokes  reverence  in  all 
beholders.  Her  color  is  clear  brunette ;  her  eyes  are 
so  lively  they  seem  to  be  looking  in  every  direction  at 
once,  yet  their  regard  is  composed,  and  frank.  Her 
whole  aspect  is  one  of  celestial  authority.  .  .  .  On 
her  left  arm  she  carries  her  Son.  ...  In  her  right 
hand  is  a  cross  set  with  an  emerald.  The  features  of 
the  Child  are  perfect,  in  color  very  like  the  mother's. 
He  bears  in  His  left  hand  a  round  ball,  signifying  the 
world,  and  His  right  is  lifted  as  though  He  were  about 
to  bestow  a  blessing. '^  ^ 

This  image  is  famous.  Our  Lady  of  Cobre  is  the 
patroness  of  Cuba.  She  has  been  identified  with  the 
island  ever  since  Christianity  first  arrived  here  in  the 
persons  of  the  Spanish  conquerors.  Her  origin  has  been 
considered  miraculous,  but  dispassionate  investigation 
finds  in  legends  concerning  it  some  little  of  secular  his- 
tory. 

In  the  years  1510-1511  Alonso  de  Hojeda,  one  of  the 
most  daring  of  the  companions  of  Columbus,  and  the 
first  colonizer  of  the  South  American  mainland,  made 
a  most  disastrous  attempt  to  settle  the  Isthmus  of 
Darien  at  a  place  he  called  San  Sebastian  on  the  Gulf 
of  Uraba.  The  story  of  that  colony  is  a  tale  of  almost 
incredible  suffering.  At  one  time  the  garrison  was  on 
the  point  of  succumbing  to  starvation,  when  over  the 

1  Chaplain  D.  Bernardino  Ramirez,  in  his  History  of  the  Apparition, 
quoted  by  P.  Fr.  Paulino  Alvarez  in  his  own  Brief  History.  The 
image  is  said  to  be  of  wood ;  it  is  about  three  palms  high. 


OUE    LADY    OF    COB  RE  375 

horizon  sailed  a  buccaneer  named  Talavera,  in  a  ship 
he  and  his  rascals  stole  from  a  port  in  western  Hayti. 
Hojeda  and  his  men  raised  small  question  as  to  where 
Talavera  obtained  the  supplies  they  bought  of  him,  for 
which  they  paid  in  slaves  and  in  gold.  This  relief  was, 
however,  only  temporary. 

Therefore  Hojeda  decided  to  embark  with  the  pirate 
in  the  stolen  vessel  and  proceed  to  the  city  of  Santo 
Domingo,  there  to  procure  food  and  reinforcements 
for  his  unhappy  colony.  '^But,'^  says  Las  Casas 
(III,  Ix),  ^'they  were  not  able  to  fall  in  with  that 
island ;  they  struck  on  Cuba  in  the  port  and  province  of 
Xagua.'^  The  name  Xagua  still  clings  to  Cienfuegos, 
and,  judging  by  Las  Casas'  (and  Oviedo's)  remarks 
elsewhere  as  to  the  size  and  excellence  of  the  bay  of 
Xagua,  it  was  near  Cienfuegos  Hojeda  was  wrecked 
on  this  occasion.  No  Spaniards  had  as  yet  settled  there, 
though  the  port  had  been  visited  by  Sebastian  de  Campo 
when  he  circumnavigated  Cuba  in  1508. 

^'Here,''  continues  the  Clerigo  Las  Casas,  'Hhe 
Spaniards  landed,  abandoning  the  ship.  They  set  out 
to  walk  across  Cuba  eastward  in  order  to  come  nearer  to 
Santo  Domingo. ''  Unfortunately,  they  kept  to  the 
coast  hoping  to  avoid  conflicts  with  the  Indians,  whom 
they  were  not  prepared  to  fight ;  and  the  shore  of  Cuba 
on  the  south  is  bordered  with  mangrove  swamps. 

The  Spaniards,  supposing  .the  marsh  they  met  would 
not  last  long,  plunged  boldly  into  it ;  before  they  came 
out  again  they  had  suffered  horrors  of  hunger,  thirst,  and 
utter  weariness.  That  any  survived  the  ordeal  may  be 
recorded,  perhaps,  as  the  first  miracle  worked  by  the 
Virgin  of  Charity,  since  become  Our  Lady  of  Cobre. 

^^For,''  Las  Casas  informs  us,  ^^in  his  knapsack  along 
with  his  little  food,  Alonso  de  Hojeda  carried  an  image 


376  CUBA 

of  Our  Lady  which  was  very  holy  and  marvellously 
delineated ;  it  was  made  in  Flanders  and  presented  to 
him  by  the  Bishop  Juan  de  Fonseca,  who  loved  Hojeda 
well.  Hojeda  felt  a  deep  devotion  for  this  image; 
he  was  always  a  devout  servant  of  the  Mother  of  God/' 
—  roystering,  swaggering,  pious  daredevil !  There- 
fore, whenever  the  Spaniards,  struggling  through  the 
tangled  growth  of  mangrove  in  the  swamp  which  seemed 
endless,  drew  themselves  up  on  the  gnarled  roots  to  rest 
uncomfortably,  Hojeda  brought  forth  his  image  from  his 
knapsack,  and  set  it  up  in  the  tree  beside  him,  to  worship 
and  to  pray  to  it.  He  exhorted  the  others  to  adore 
this  Mary,  entreating  her  to  remedy  their  condition. 
^^  With  great  devotion  he  commended  his  party  t  Our 
Lady's  pity.  He  made  a  vow  that  he  would  leave  her 
image  in  the  first  village  to  which  he  arrived  safely.'' 

It  appeared,  day  after  day,  that  their  prayers  were 
vain.  Still  they  pushed  onward ;  some  who  had  less 
courage  and  strength  were  left  behind  sooner,  and  others 
later.  ^^Half  of  them  all,  I  believe,  and  they  were 
seventy,  died  there  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and  by  drown- 
ing. 

^^It  pleased  God  that  some,  the  most  active  and 
strongest  and  best  able  to  endure  such  misery,  should 
live  it  through.  They  found  a  beaten  path  and  followed 
it.  At  the  distance  of  a  league  they  came  upon  an 
Indian  village  named  Cueyba,  y  long,  and  on  reaching  it 
some  fell  as  though  dead  from  sheer  exhaustion.  The 
Indians  were  astonished  at  the  sight.  ...  In  that 
village  [which  was  on  the  way  to  Camaguey,  thirty 
leagues  from  Bayamo  (IV,  xxxi)]  the  survivors  were 
served  for  many  days,  fed,  entertained  and  comforted 
as  though  the  natives  thought  them  angels." 

In  accordance  with  his  promise,  Hojeda,  before  he 


OUB    LADY    OF    COB  BE  377 

proceeded  on  his  way  to  Santo  Domingo,  gave  his  image 
of  the  Virgin  Mother  to  the  chief  of  the  village  of  Cueyba, 
^^and  had  him  erect  a  hermitage  or  oratory,  with  its 
altar,  whereon  the  image  was  placed.  He  gave  the 
Indians  some  idea  of  God,  as  best  he  could  put  it  to  them, 
explaining  that  the  image  represented  the  Mother  of 
God,  Lord  of  the  world,  who  was  in  heaven,  and  that 
she  was  called  Holy  Mary,  intercessor  for  men. 

^^The  devotion  and  reverence  the  Indians  felt  for  her 
was  admirable;  they  decorated  the  church  with 
cloths  of  cotton  and  kept  it  swept  and  sprinkled; 
they  made  verses  to  her  in  their  own  language,  sung  in 
their  dances  and  festivities  (called  areites)  in  which  they 
danced  to  the  sound  of  their  own  voices. '' 

Father  Las  Casas  passed  through  Cueyba  with  Velaz- 
quez' expedition  in  1511,  and  himself  saw  the  image, 
upon  the  altar,  in  its  little  church  ^^so  well  kept  and 
decorated. '' 

^^  The  father  had  with  him  at  that  time  another  image, 
also  made  in  Flanders,  which  had  many  devotees,  but 
not  so  many  as  this  now  belonging  to  the  Indians.  The 
father  desired  to  exchange  images  with  the  cacique 
(chief)  of  the  village. 

^^  After  the  Indians,  at  Cueyba,  had  received  the 
Spaniards  [arriving  on  the  expedition  mentioned] 
well,  and  offered  them  much  to  eat,  and  the  children 
had  been  baptized,  which  was  the  first  thing  done, 
always,  and  all  had  found  lodgings,  the  father  began  to 
negotiate  with  the  cacique  concerning  an  exchange  of 
images.  The  cacique  arose  from  the  conference,  sad, 
dissimulating  as  best  he  could ;  when  night  came  he 
took  his  image  and  fled  to  the  hills  with  it,  or  to  other 
villages. '^ 

On  discovering  his  absence.  Las  Casas  in  vain  sent 


378  CUBA 

the  chief  messages  to  return,  assuring  him  that  he  should 
retain  his  image.  If  he  brought  it  back  to  Cueyba,  it 
was  after  the  Spaniards  had  moved  on. 

To  my  knowledge  there  is  no  further  mention  in  the 
secular  history  of  early  Cuba  of  Hojeda^s  image,  Mary 
of  Cueyba,  as  such.^ 

P.  Fr.  Paulino  Alvarez,  of  Santo  Domingo  Convent, 
in  Havana,  has  written  a  ''Short  History  of  the  Virgin 
of  Charity.'^  He  quotes  the  first  chaplain  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, Onofre  de  Fonseca,  whose  writings  were  pub- 
lished by  a  later  chaplain,  D.  Bernardino  Ramirez,  to 
the  effect  that  about  1515  there  was  in  the  east  ^  of 
Cuba  a  certain  band  of  Indians  who  always  won  in  battle, 
thanks,  it  was  believed,  to  an  image  their  chief  had 
which  was  given  him  by  a  Spanish  soldier,  who  also 
taught  him  to  salute  that  image  with  the  words  ''Ave 
Maria  !^^  Once  a  dispute  arose  between  this  chief's 
tribe  and  another  tribe  as  to  which  was  the  more  power- 
ful, that  image  of  the  lady,  or  their  idols.  To  decide 
it  they  bound  two  men,  one  from  each  tribe,  and  left 
them  helpless  in  the  middle  of  a  field.  The  tribes 
then  drew  aside,  and  while  one  invoked  the  image  whose 
salutation  was  "Hail,  Mary!''  the  other  called  upon 
its  heathen  gods,  to  come  loose  their  respective  worship- 
ers. Then  it  was  that  the  cacique  who  prized  the  image 
the  Spanish  soldier  had  given  him,  was  granted  a  vision 
of  Mary  as  she  drew  near  to  the  man  who  trusted  in  her, 
touched  his  bonds  with  a  scepter,  and  set  him  free.     So 

1  Oviedo,  author  of  The  General  and  Natural  History  of  the 
Indies,  an  authority  of  considerable  weight,  states  that  he  heard  of 
the  devotion  shown  by  the  Indians  to  an  image  of  the  Virgin,  but 
adds  that  he  never  saw  the  image,  and  had,  moreover,  his  doubts 
as  to  the  sincerity  of  the  devotion. 

2  It  is  my  impression  that  the  village  of  Cueyba  occupied  the 
present  site  of  Camaguey  City. 


OUR    LADY    OF    COB  BE  379 

miraculously  liberated,  this  man  went  to  his  opponent, 
and  tied  him  tighter,  all  the  while  mocking  his  and  his 
tribe^s  trust  in  false  gods.  This  tribe  was  much  angered 
by  the  whole  affair,  and  continued  the  warfare  against 
the  chief  who  had  the  powerful  image.  Our  Lady,  on 
the  other  hand,  continued  to  vouchsafe  him  her  special 
protection. 

Indeed,  this  cacique  was  so  devoted  to  his  Virgin,  that 
he  forbade  that  her  name  be  mentioned  outside  the 
temple  he  had  built  for  her,  excepting  in  cases  of  grave 
danger,  when  her  aid  might  be  invoked.  When  he 
was  wearied  with  fighting,  and  sought  peace,  this  old 
cacique  retreated  to  the  north  and  inland,  taking  his 
Lady  with  him;  finally,  one  day,  fearing  that  she 
might  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies  after  his  death, 
or  in  some  unexpected  attack  be  captured,  he  thought 
best  to  dispose  of  her,  and  so  he  threw  her  into  one  of 
the  rivers  that  empties  into  Nipe  Bay,  according  to 
the  first  chaplain  of  the  sanctuary  of  Cobre. 

There  is  no  positive  proof  that  the  image  which  cham- 
pioned the  devoted  cacique  in  his  battles  was  the  same 
Hojeda  left  at  Cueyba,  but  the  inference  that  it  was  is 
natural. 

Now,  in  the  year  1628,  two  Indians,  brothers,  named 
Rodrigo  and  Juan  Hoyos,  residents,  apparently,  on  the 
Varajagua  cattle  ranch,  accompanied  by  a  negro  child  of 
ten,  called  Juan  Moreno,  went  down  to  Nipe  Bay  to 
gather  salt.  They  were  detained  on  Frances  or  Vigia 
Key  for  three  days  by  bad  weather ;  on  the  morning  of 
the  third  day  they  put  from  shore  and  had  not  gone  far 
when  they  discerned  an  object  floating  toward  them  on 
the  waves.  They  steered  to  it,  animated  by  curiosity, 
which  turned  to  astonishment  when  they  discovered 
that  the  object  was  an  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 


880  CUBA 

She  was  riding  untouched  by  the  waves,  the  story- 
goes.  In  her  right  hand  she  carried  a  cross  on  which 
were  letters  of  gold  that  read  :  '^  I  am  the  Virgin  of  Char- 
ity/' On  her  left  arm  she  carried  the  Child.  She 
appeared,  in  short,  much  as  we  saw  her,  crowned  Our 
Lady  of  Cobre  in  her  chapel  on  the  hill  above  that 
village. 

There  is  no  proof,  of  course,  that  the  image  found  in 
Nipe  Bay,  since  become  the  Patroness  of  Cuba,  is  the 
same  Hojeda  left  at  Cueyba,  the  same  the  Indians 
valued,  and  the  same  the  cacique  confided  to  the  river 
when  he  began  to  doubt  his  own  powers  to  defend; 
but  the  supposition  that  they  are  all  one  and  the  same 
with  the  Lady  still  adored  by  devotees  at  the  mining 
village  is  entertained. 

The  three  who  found  it  floating  on  Nipe  lifted  the 
image  to  their  boat,  and,  having  collected  the  salt  for 
which  they  came,  returned  to  Varajagua,  bearing  the 
Virgin  with  them.  They  related  to  the  mayoral,  Miguel 
Galan,  how  they  had  found  her,  and  he  in  turn  informed 
his  superior,  the  administrator  of  the  royal  copper  mines 
at  Cobre,  D.  Francisco  Sanchez  de  Moya,  who  ordered 
a  little  temple  built  to  shelter  her;  he  sent  a  copper 
lamp  to  be  kept  burning  upon  her  altar.  Diego  Hoyos 
became  Our  Lady  of  Cobre's  first  sacristan. 

It  was  he  who  noted  on  two  or  three  occasions  when 
he  went  at  nightfall  to  tend  the  copper  lamp,  that  the 
image  was  missing.  When  she  went  it  was  vain  to 
search  for  her^%she  always  returned  by  morning,  — 
wet,  perhaps,  and  bedraggled,  which  moved  the  sacristan 
—  faithful  servitor  that  he  was  —  to  scold  !  It  was 
believed  that  the  Virgin  sought  to  indicate  by  such  ab- 
sences that  she  desired  a  more  sumptuous  temple  than 
had  been  provided.    She  was  therefore  removed  to  the 


•  OUB    LADY    OF    COBUE  381 

parish  church  at  Cobre  amid  great  pomp  and  rejoicing. 
She  has  insisted  on  remaining  in  the  village  ever  since ; 
when  she  has  been  removed  she  has  returned  of  her  own 
volition. 

The  people  of  Cobre  prayed  that  they  might  be  in- 
formed why  the  image  continued,  nevertheless,  to  dis- 
appear from  time  to  time  from  the  altar  where  they  had 
placed  it.  In  answer  to  their  prayer  mysterious  lights 
burned  upon  the  summit  of  a  hill  above  the  town,  and 
thus  it  was  understood  that  upon  that  height  she  desired 
her  shrine.  For  some  reason  or  other  the  church  then 
built  for  her  was  not  placed  exactly  where  the  lights 
had  appeared,  though  it  was  near  that  spot.  In  this 
little  church  the  image  stood,  apparently  satisfied,  for 
twenty  years.  Then  it  was  found  that  a  vein  of  copper 
ran  immediately  under  the  church,  and  in  working  the 
vein  the  building  was  made  unsafe ;  it  was  demolished 
and  another  built  precisely  where  the  mysterious  lights 
had  shone,  and  where  the  Virgin  was  seen  in  person  once 
by  a  little  child. 

In  this  sanctuary  the  Virgin  was  long  worshiped 
ardently:  her  altar  became  the  mecca  of  pilgrimages 
on  which  persons  came  in  numbers  from  great  distances. 
It  was  here  that  we  beheld  her,  in  our  turn.  Flowers 
and  lighted  candles  were  the  gifts  of  her  humble  wor- 
shipers ;  the  wealthy  brought  jewels  and  gold.  The 
Lady  in  exchange  worked  miracles  upon  the  sick  and 
needy.  Small  silver  medals  were  left  in  large  quantities 
at  her  feet  in  recognition  of  her  powers ;  stored  in 
the  church  we  saw  piles  of  crutches  and  sticks 
cast  away  before  her  altar  by  those  she  cured 
of  diseases  that  had  crippled  them.  From  end  to  end 
of  the  island  her  cult  spread.  She  is  to-day  the  most 
popular  Virgin,  especially  among  the  lower  classes.     Ne- 


382  CUBA 

groes  adore  her  because  one  of  the  three  to  whom  she 
came  on  Nipe  Bay  was  a  negro  child.  Yellow  is  her 
color  and  coral  and  copper  are  her  emblems ;  this  is  the 
favorite  hue  with  blacks  in  their  wearing  apparel,  and 
these  their  favorite  trinkets  of  jewelry.  (And  I  read  in 
this  morning's  newspaper  that  it  is  before  the  altar 
of  Our  Lady  of  Cobre  the  negro  political  party's  leaders 
have  ^^ sworn  to  the  death''  to  maintain  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  ^Hhe  noble  race  of  color"!) 

The  Virgin  of  Charity  has  suffered  with  her  country. 
Wars  have  attracted  from  her  the  attention  of  her 
followers ;  her  shrine  has  been  abandoned,  and  once  it 
was  desecrated  by  sacrilegious  robbers.  She  has,  in 
troublous  periods,  been  driven  from  her  church  by  fire 
and  sword.  Though  she  still  occupied  the  place  of  honor 
in  it,  her  chapel  was  barren  and  desolate  when  I  saw  it. 
Since  then  it  has  become  unsafe ;  at  the  present  time 
I  understand  the  image  occupies  a  temporary  altar  in  a 
private  house  in  the  town  below.  There  is  a  movement 
on  foot  to  build  a  new  shrine ;  pious  women  have 
originated  it  and  contributions  are  promised  from  all 
quarters,  —  from  the  palace  in  Havana  down  to  hovels 
in  the  hills. 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 
CUTTING   AND   STRIPPING    CANE 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 
LOADING   A   CART    IN    THE    FIELD 

In  THE  Cane  Fields  of  Cuba 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE    SOUTH    COAST 

Santiago  to  Cienfuegos 

It  was  at  sunset  on  the  10th  of  October,  1900,  that 
we  left  Santiago  by  sea,  turning  westward  from  Morro 
Castle  through  the  Straits  of  Columbus,  past  Cabo 
Cruz,  which  he  named.  Next  morning  brought  us  before 
Manzanillo,  a  town  we  had  always  thought  of  to  the 
tune  of  En  las  Lomas.  It  appeared  before  us  most 
prosaically,  without  a  hill  worth  considering,  without 
even  the  flag  the  song  tells  of,  and  certainly  without 
Gomez  and  his  forces  prepared  for  war.  Instead,  in  the 
barracks  were  troopers  of  the  '^Fighting  Tenth  Cav- 
alry,'' ready  enough,  undoubtedly,  for  trouble,  but 
quite  at  peace ;  above  them  swung  the  American  flag, 
and  all  I  saw  to  indicate  that  piping  times  had  not 
always  been  the  rule,  were  the  rusted  hulks  of  Spanish 
gunboats  sunk  by  their  own  crews,  and  the  skeleton  of 
a  side-wheeled  mailboat  that  failed  to  stop  when  re- 
quested so  to  do,  —  she  burned,  set  afire  by  a  rebuking 
shot.  We  looked  through  an  old  fort  which  appeared 
to  have  been  built  in  the  Year  One  and  neglected  ever 
since.  I  have  not  seen  Manzanillo  again.  Of  it  I 
know  nothing  more,  save  that  it  ships  hard  woods,  and, 
shortly  indeed,  is  to  become  the  Cuba  Railroad's 
southern  terminus :  already  the  extension  is  complete 
between  Manzanillo  and  Bayamo. 

383 


384  CUBA 

Another  morning  found  us  off  Santa  Cruz  del  Sur 
(port  of  exit  for  much  hard  wood),  where  the  Queen  of 
the  Angels  —  this  was  the  exalted  title  of  the  ship  we 
rode  —  made  a  short  stop ;  the  uninviting  water  front 
did  not  tempt  us  ashore.  There  followed  a  day^s 
sail  through  seas  as  still  as  a  land-circled  lake  in  a  calm ; 
the  translucent  green  waters  were  dotted  thick  with  islets 
of  emerald.  These  indeed  are  gardens  fit  for  a  queen, 
as  the  First  Admiral  rightly  thought  as  day  after 
day  they  embellished  the  course  he  steered,  westward, 
in  1494,  through  virgin  waters. 

Late  at  night  we  stopped  off  Jucaro,  where  a  schooner 
lay  far  out  to  receive  cargo ;  it  rose  to  our  eyes  like  a 
canvas  ghost  taking  form  out  of  darkness  !  Dull  lan- 
terns burned  in  the  hold,  into  which  we  looked  from 
the  advantage  of  our  high  deck.  Bulky  figures  moved 
in  the  indistinct  light  they  cast;  one,  by  the  mast, 
was  a  bearded  man,  whose  clothes  a  red  sash  with  a 
knife  thrust  through  held  about  him.  He  hailed 
us,  in  sonorous  Spanish,  demanding,  not  our  life,  but 
freight  in  a  hurry,  for  we  were  late  and  he  had  swung 
there  for  hours,  waiting  for  casks  and  boxes,  bundles, 
bales,  and  bags  which  were  swung  over  to  him  with 
sharp  creaking  of  ropes  and  pulleys.  As  we  parted  we 
heard  him  sing,  —  some  ribald  chanty  of  the  still  Carib- 
bean. 

The  next  day  we  were  at  Casilda,  port  of  Trinidad, 
one  of  the  seven  cities  Velazquez  founded.  It  sits  well  up 
among  the  distant  mountains,  in  a  position  of  compara- 
tive security.  Moving  on  we  followed  the  hilly  shore, 
all  morning  long,  at  noon  reaching  a  glistening  new 
lighthouse  that  bears  the  ancient  name  of  Jagua. 
A  little  to  one  side  we  saw  grouped  the  brilliantly  colored 
houses  of  Paso  Caballos.     We  could,  however,  espy  no 


THE    SOUTH    COAST  385 

entrance  inland  to  where  they  said  the  city  of  Cienfue- 
gos  lay.  Our  ship  headed  for  the  coast,  inclined,  it 
seemed,  to  mount  the  walls  of  a  tiny  gray  fortress,  placed 
to  dispute  her  passage.  Quite  unexpectedly  she  shifted 
her  course  to  the  right,  and  before  us  opened  the  placid 
waters  of  the  famous  bay,  jeweled  with  keys,  at  the  far 
edge  of  which  we  could  make  out  the  bright  houses 
of  the ''City  of  a  Hundred  Fires.'' 

ThereweTef  t  the  Queen  of  the  Angels  to  continue  her 
westward  course  to  Batabano.  I  shall  not  forget  that 
vessel,  nor  the  companions,  particularly  a  fine  young 
Englishman,  who  made  the  voyage  pleasant.  I  remem- 
ber especially  the  dining  table,  overcrowded  with  dishes 
of  every  imaginable  variety ;  the  Caribbean  is  a  friendly 
sea,  and  I  found  them  palatable.  Arriving  at  the  sum- 
mons of  the  bell,  one  found  every  course  in  place,  from 
soup  to  dessert.  Before  one  could,  with  decency,  finish 
the  soup,  the  stewards  began  to  remove  things.  This 
animated  the  passengers  to  resistance.  After  one 
meal's  experience  one  learned  to  take  a  bit  of  everything 
offered  in  dizzying  rapidity,  piling  up  fish,  meats,  entrees 
and  sweets,  in  conglomerate  confusion.  By  the  time 
one  was  served,  in  this  manner,  the  tables  were  stripped, 
and  everybody  then  settled  down  to  enjoy  what  had 
been  retained  with  difficulty  during  the  melee.  In 
mid-afternoon  the  stewards  appeared  to  offer  refresh- 
ments. Passengers  are  free  to  order  what  they  will,  and 
the  stock  of  wines  and  liquors  is,  I  am  told,  excellent 
in  variety  and  quality.  I  can  speak  well  from  experi- 
ence of  the  ginger  ale.  They  told  me  that  in  years  past 
the  cost  of  passage  along  the  south  coast  was  extraor- 
dinarily high.  Travelers  were,  then,  mostly  sugar 
planters.  The  fare  included  everything,  from  the 
necessary  food  up  to  champagne  whenever  called  for, 

2c 


386  CUBA 

and  the  best  cigars  manufactured  in  Cuba.  There  were 
no  extras.  A  trip  on  this  Hne  was  a  lavish  entertain- 
ment, —  to  be  enjoyed  to  the  full,  and  paid  for  accord- 
ingly in  the  price  of  one's  ticket. 

From  Cienfuegos  we  returned  to  Havana  by  rail. 
I  revisited  that  city  in  1907.  It  is  the  most  important  in 
the  Province  of  Santa  Clara;  its  present  population 
is  thirty  thousand  and  one  hundred,  which  makes  it 
fourth  in  the  republic.  It  is  the  south  coast  terminus 
of  the  Cuban  Central  Railways.  It  ships  more  sugar 
than  any  other  port  in  the  island,  I  believe ;  since  the 
railways  constructed  there  the  steel  and  concrete  pier 
which  projects  a  thousand  feet  into  the  bay,  Cienfuegos 
has  become  a  cheap  port,  whereas  it  was,  prior  to  this 
improvement,  one  of  the  most  expensive,  because  of 
charges  for  lighterage  now  not  necessary.  The  lar- 
gest steamers  which  enter  come  alongside  that  pier,  and 
load  to  full  capacity  direct  from  the  cars. 

From  Columbus'  time,  navigators  have  agreed  that 
Cieufuegos  Bay  is  the  handsomest  harbor  in  the  New 
World.  It  is  landlocked ;  eleven  miles  long,  and  three 
to  five  wide;  tranquil,  transparent,  and  capacious, — 
it  could  comfortably  accommodate  the  assembled  navies 
of  the  world.  The  city  itself  lies  on  a  slight  elevation  on 
shore  above  these  quiet  waters,  at  a  distance  of  six  miles 
from  the  entrance  to  them  from  the  sea.  It  is  modern 
in  every  respect ;  its  streets  are  wide  ;  its  stores  exten- 
sive. It  is  fortunate  in  its  hotels.  The  plaza  is  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  inviting  in  Cuba.  The  Terry 
Theater  was  built  by  the  family  of  that  name  at  a  cost 
of  $115,999,  and  presented  to  the  city.  The  cathedral 
near  is  rich  in  ornate  shrines  with  relics  deeply  revered 
by  the  faithful.  The  old  Jesuit  college  on  the  edge 
of  town  is  picturesque ;  I  wish  I  knew  more  of  its  history. 


THE    SOUTH    COAST  387 

The  city  has  its  drive  and  promenade,  which  extends 
across  intervening  waters  to  Punta  Gorda. 

Punta  Gorda  is  a  most  beautiful  bayshore  spot. 
A  green  and  shady  promontory,  it  projects  into  the 
crystal-clear  waters  of  the  great  harbor,  and  they  reflect 
in  the  sunlight  the  colored  walls  and  red-tiled  roofs 
of  the  summer  residences  of  the  wealthy,  set  like  gems 
on  the  little  headland.  Each  villa  possesses  its  own 
boat  landing  and  bathhouse,  of  lattice  work. 

We  rode  forth,  aboard  a  comfortable  little  steamer, 
from  Cienfuegos,  past  Punta  Gorda,  Cayo  Carenas, 
and  other  settlements  on  the  shores  of  the  bay,  opposite 
the  city  itself.  Our  objective  point  was  the  little  fort 
called  Our  Lady  of  the  Angels,  that  first  I  saw  from  sea. 
Brilliantly  colored  houses,  clinging  to  the  steep  hillside 
of  Point  Sabanilla.,  on  which  the  fortlet  stands,  form  one 
of  the  most  fascinating  views  IVe  seen  in  Cuba.  The 
tiny  castle  itself,  headquarters,  when  we  were  there,  for  a 
detachment  of  Cuban  rural  guards,  was  built  in  the 
reign  of  Philip  V  to  protect  the  harbor,  and  especially 
settlements  and  the  country  inland  to  which  this  gives 
access,  from  the  marauders  who  then  infested  the  Span- 
ish Main.  It  looks  to  a  visitor  in  these  modern  days 
like  an  engraving  cut  from  some  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  —  angled  walls,  deep  moat,  drawbridge,  round 
solid  shot,  and  all.  Not  a  fortification  in  the  country 
surpasses  in  interest  this  curious  little  castle,  —  per- 
fectly preserved  specimen  of  its  time.  The  view  from 
its  battlements  is  lovely  in  the  extreme.  Inland  and  at 
a  distance  are  misty  hills ;  nearer  at  hand  stretches 
the  green,  palm-grown,  open  country.  Immediately 
below  are  the  calm  waters  of  the  immense  bay,  gemmed 
—  there  is  no  other  simile  for  it  —  with  verdant  isles 
and  promontories,  these,  in  turn,  jeweled  with    villas 


388  CUBA 

set  here  and  there ;  and,  on  the  far  opposite  shore  of  the 
harbor,  scintillating  in  the  sunlight,  is  Cienfuegos, 
'^  City  of  the  Hundred  Fires, '^  named,  prosaically  enough 
despite  legend  to  the  contrary,  by  the  French  emigrant 
from  Louisiana,  M.  Clouet,  for  General  Jos6  Cienfuegos, 
who  was  governor  of  Cuba  in  1819,  when  the  modern 
city  was  founded. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


SANTA   CLARA 


"  The  wealth  of  the  Indies  "  pours,  —  ole 
Prom  the  chutes  of  a  sugar  mill. 

—  From  "Glorious  Santa  Clara." 

From  Cienfuegos  the  railways  run  almost  due  north, 
across  the  island,  even  to  Isabela  de  Sagua  on  the  other 
shore.  They  traverse  the  greatest  sugar  district  in 
Cuba,  —  the  very  heart  of  Santa  Clara  Province.  From 
Cruces  alone  five  of  the  most  renowned  mills  in  the  coun- 
try are  in  sight :  Dos  Hermanas,  Andreita,  San  Francis- 
co, San  Agustin,  and  Caracas.  Santa  Catalina,  Santa 
Maria,  and  Santa  Rosa  are  near  by,  and  at  no  great 
distance  is  the  famous  mill  of  Hormiguero. 

Each  of  these  estates  has  its  particular  identity,  — 
as  well  known  to  Cuba  in  general  as  that  of  any  race 
horse  at  a  famous  meet.  To  me  it  has  always  seemed 
that  each  grinding  season  is  indeed  a  race;  each  mill 
is  entered,  —  to  beat  its  neighbors'  or  its  own  record, 
as  the  case  may  be.  The  great  goal  is  the  government 
statistician's  estimate  of  what  each  and  all  should 
accomplish. 

All  summer  long  they  groom.  In  the  sugarhouse  the 
intricate  machinery  of  the  mills  themselves  is  put  into 
condition,  worn  parts  are  replaced,  antiquated  processes 
are  removed,  latest  patents  installed,  and  each  treatment 
is  planned  to  get  best  and  most  results  for  least  expendi- 
ture of  time,  space,  and  energy.     Suddenly,  some  day 

389 


390  CUBA 

in  Noyembeiv  one  manager,  finding  his  hour  ripe,  gives 
""  tEe  signal ;  his  mills  move.  From  end  to  end  of  the 
island  the  news  flashes:  ''The  zafra's  on!''  News- 
papers print  it  in  headlines.  Friends  telegraph  their 
encouragement.  Agents  who  have  sold  the  machinery 
in  use  journey  to  the  plantation  to  see  it  work,  —  to 
criticise,  to  help.  As  the  days  pass  and  other  mills  fall 
in,  interest  grows.  Bets  are  recorded.  It  is  wagered 
that  this  mill  will  beat  that  one  in  output ;  that  the 
other  will  raise  its  own  record  by  so  many  bags ;  that 
still  another  will  get  best  rendition,  or  its  neighbor  lose 
least  time  in  repairs.  Partisans  cheer  their  favorites,  or 
pound  upon  their  desks  in  indignation  when  a  roller 
breaks.  In  such  a  crisis  the  cables  are  hot  with  n^essages 
to  makers  of  spares,  and  the  foundries  of  Scotland  — 
or  France  or  America,  as  the  case  may  be  —  echo  with 
the  rush  of  a  hurry  order.  Every  day's  idleness  in  a  sugar 
mill  during  the  grinding  season  is  hundreds  and  hundreds 
\  of  dollars  lost.  Neither^by  day  nor  by  night  is  there  any 
respite,  while  things  go  weir  ^  Men  work  in  shifts.  Machin- 
ery is  cleaned  in  relays.  The  cane  trains,  homing  to  the 
mill  at  nightfall,  bring  stalks  enough  to  feed  the  crushers 
until  the  cutters  return  to  the  fields  at  dawn.  Daylight 
and  dark,  the  sugarhouse  throbs  in  its  labor :  the 
crashing  reverberation  of  its  unloaders  discharging  their 
burdens  into  the  carrier's  maw  is  felt  in  Hamburg  and 
Hawaii ;  the  echo  is  heard  in  the  beet  fields  of  Colorado 
and  down  among  the  Andes  of  the  Argentine.  In  New 
York  and  in  London  the  accomplishment  of  each  central 
is  measured,  for  Cuba  is  a  factor  in  the  world's  sugar 
market :  the  quantity  of  the  crop  her  mills  send  forth 
influences  sugar  conditions  around  the  world. 

Her  plantations  are  indeed  business  undertakings  of 
a  magnitude  to  demand  the  respect  even  of  men  accus- 


SANTA    CLARA  391 

tomed  to  big  affairs.  Thek  managers  are  not  captains, 
but  generals  of  industry.  They  are  masters  of  wide 
stretches  of  territory,  —  absolute  masters  if,  as  fre- 
quently happens,  they  own  all,  or  large  part,  of  what 
they  manage.  They  command  thousands  of  men,  — 
men  willing,  too,  I  truly  believe,  not  only  to  work,  but 
to  fight  for  them,  should,  by  any  unforeseen  chance, 
that  necessity  arise.  (I  have  in  mind  one  manager  who 
could,  unquestionably,  muster  an  army  of  five  or  six 
thousand  men  on  an  hour's  notice.)  They  are  respon- 
sible for  millions  of  dollars  in  machinery,  cane,  live 
stock,  railway  equipment,  and  the  miscellaneous  im- 
pedimenta of  the  settlement  around  their  headquarters, 
which  is,  usually,  a  town,  with  stores,  churches,  schools, 
and  considerable  population.  The  tasks  confided  to 
them  are  extraordinary;  they  demand  extraordinary 
powers.  They  also  reflect  upon  these  managers  ex- 
traordinary honor  even  in  their  own  land.  No  class  of 
men  is  more  respected  in  Cuba,  —  for  ability  and  integ- 
rity, —  or  more  looked  up  to  as  a  very  important  con- 
servative element  in  the  island's  affairs,  financial,  social, 
and  political.  They  are  recognized  as  the  embodiment 
of  Cuba's  most  prolific  source  of  wealth,—  wealth 
which  IS  created  hew  each  year,  originating  in  the  very 
soil  of  the  island.  The  deference  paid  them  is  the 
country's  tribute  to  producers,  to  contributors  to  the 
world's  demand  for  a  wholesome  and  necessary  article. 
In  the  last  five  years  they  have  delivered  43,933,238 
bags  of  sugar,  each  bag  containing  325  pounds.  Of 
this,  2  per  cent  came  out  of  Pinar  del  Rio  Province; 
12  per  cent  from  Havana ;  26  per  cent  from  Matanzas  ; 
37  per  cent  from  Santa  Clara ;  3  per  cent  from  Cama- 
guey;  19  per  cent  from  Oriente.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  of   170  mills  grinding  last  season,  34|  were 


392  CUBA 

owned  by  Americans  and  651  by  Europeans,  or,  lOOf 
by  foreigners,  as  against  693  by  Cubans.  Of  the  total 
crop  (1,513,582  tons)  34  per  cent  was  had  from  mills 
of  American  ownership,  35  per  cent  from  mills  of 
Europeans ;  or,  69  per  cent  from  foreigners  as  against 
31  per  cent  produced  by  Cubans.  If  it  were  possible 
to  take  mortgages  into  account,  they  would  be  found  to 
increase  foreign  ownership  largely,  particularly  the 
American. 

I  confess,  however,  that  the  vital  interest  inherent  in 
these  matters  escaped  me  quite,  as  we  journeyed  north 
from  the  junction  at  Santo  Domingo  to  Sagua,  on  the 
occasion  of  our  visit  there.  Of  what  we  passed  en  route 
I  have  no  recollection,  for  the  nausea  of  exhaustion  was 
on  me  :  from  the  pit  of  my  stomach  outward  hot  waves 
radiated,  and  my  heart,  having  removed  itself  to  an 
unusual  situation  in  the  back  of  my  neck,  beat  there 
like  a  pile  driver.  It  was  midsummer.  There  was  a 
drought  on  the  country,  and  water  was  scarce;  I  had 
not  yet  learned  to  accept  bottled  substitutes.  Odors 
of  oil  and  garlic  leaped  at  and  enveloped  me  at  every 
eating  station.  The  very  people,  wherever  they  con- 
gregated together,  were  a  stench  in  my  nostrils.  To  add 
climax  to  my  discomfort,  I  was  harrowed  with  the 
necessity  of  admiring  what  I  saw,  for  I  was  writing  a 
railway  folder,  and  no  railway  folder  was  ever  written, 
that  I  know,  except  to  praise  !  We  were  accompanied 
by  a  very  pleasant  young  Englishman  who  mitigated 
the  discomforts  of  that  journey  as  best  he  could. 
Through  the  long  and  wearing  days  he  remained  cool, 
clean,  and  immaculate,  content  with  Apollinaris  and 
boiled  eggs,  immune  from  dust,  insects,  and,  apparently, 
every  prevalent  annoyance.  I  admired  him  tremen- 
dously ;   and  ever  since  I  have  conceded  without  argu- 


SANTA    CLARA  393 

merit  that  we  Americans  have  a  deal  to  learn  from  the ' 
Eng;lish.     They  master  conditions,  and,  with  conditions, 
empire. 

We  arrived  at  Sagua  la  Grande.  I  remember  it  as 
a  very  modern  Cuban  town,  with  straight,  wide  streets 
in  which  the  dust  eddied  and  swirled,  for  no  rain  had 
fallen  since  quien  sabe  cuando:  it  was  the  ^^dry  speir' 
after  the  cyclone  of  1906.  There  was  a  withered 
plaza;  a  church ;  a  hotel,  with  wooden  floors  upstairs, 
warped  for  lack  of  scrubbing,  and  a  stairway  unswept 
in  the  corners  of  its  steps.  The  proprietor  of  this  es- 
tablishment was  most  obliging  and  desirous  to  please ;  he 
would  have  swept  the  stairs  with  alacrity  had  it  been 
borne  in  on  him  that  anybody  really  wanted  it  done. 
I  have  since  heard  Sagua  praised  as  a  clean  and  pleasant 
place  by  others  who  have  visited  it,  doubtless  in  better 
mood  than  mine.  Were  I  to  return  now  that  I  have 
learned  how  to  travel  in  the  tropics,  I^d  probably  see  it 
myself  in  another  light.  Meanwhile,  to  tell  the  truth, 
I  bear  no  pleasant  recollections  of  it,  except  as  the  resi- 
dence of  a  fine  and  manly  Scotchman  with  a  name  as 
stanchly  Scotch  as  he;  and  of  a  hospitable  English- 
man and  his  wife,  who,  taking  pity,  I  like  to  believe,  upon 
our  plight,  invited  us  to  tea  in  their  cool  and  quiet  quar- 
ters. A  big  vine  climbed  to  their  porch  from  the  patio 
below.  A  red-cheeked  nursemaid,  to  whom,  though 
she  was  a  Spanish  immigrant,  they  had  imparted  Eng- 
lish cleanliness  and  neat  attire,  brought  out  the  baby 
—  are  these  British  babies  born  with  manners  ?  How 
else  do  they  acquire  them  so  young  ?  No  tea  was  ever 
as  refreshing  as  the  tea  they  served  us  here ;  no  tiny 
cakes  were  ever  as  delicious  as  those  that  accompanied 
it. 

From  Sagua  la  Grande  we  traveled    eleven  miles 


394  CUBA 

north  to  its  port,  Isabela  de  Sagua,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Sagua  River.  We  passed  through  rich  grazing  land,  and 
cane  land  where  ''before  the  wars''  there  were  half  a 
dozen  small  sugar  mills,  by  actual  count,  into  flat 
marsh  lands  nearer  the  coast.  Here  mangroves  thrive 
in  pools  of  brackish  water,  beaten  in  from  sea  to  lie 
motionless  about  their  roots.  The  town  of  Isabela 
(alias  Concha,  alias  La  Boca)  is  a  travesty  on  Venice  ; 
its  wooden  houses  are  built  on  piles  above  the  sea  itself, 
which  ebbs  and  flows  under  and  around  them,  ham- 
pered by  the  streets,which  are  sand  banks  piled  high  and 
leveled  to  the  doors  of  the  buildings  placed  carelessly 
along  them.  We  sought  the  hotel;  we  were  shown 
to  a  room,  and,  I  recall,  there  was  a  square  cut  in  the 
board  floor  through  which  to  throw  slops  and  trash  into 
the  water  below.  Isabela  is  famous  for  fish  and  oysters, 
and  on  oysters  and  fish  we  made  our  meal.  Refreshed, 
I  was,  on  the  way  back  to  the  train,  enabled  to  appre- 
ciate the  fact  that  there  is  a  big  warehouse,  docks,  corrals, 
—  complete  facilities  to  accommodate  the  considerable 
traffic  in  and  out  from  here.  Isabela  is  a  port  of  exit  for 
large  quantities  of  sugar  and  molasses,  tobacco  and 
hides ;  through  Isabela  enter,  for  distribution  over  the 
island,  cattle,  coal,  machinery,  and  an  endless  variety 
of  miscellaneous  cargo.  The  place  is  in  direct  com- 
munication with  other  ports  of  Cuba,  and  of  the  United 
States  ^d  Europe.  It  was  evening  as  we  traveled 
back  to  Sagua.  The  sunset  glowed  blood-red  in  the 
salt  pools  below  the  mangroves. 

From  Sagua,  shortly,  we  went  out  again,  southward 
and  east  through  a  country  I  remember  yet  as  beautiful. 
Everywhere  were  pleasant  pasture  lands  or  thick  luxu- 
riant cane;  we  passed  new  mills  and  the  ruins- of  old 
ones.     Beyond  Quinta  we  saw  tobacco.     This  is  the 


F^^HP^^ei''fl 

SANTA    CLARA  395 

Remedios  district,  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  island. 
In  that  town,  and  others  (Camajuani  and  Placetas)  we 
saw  tobacco  warehouses  and  packing  houses.  We  spent 
the  night  at  Caibarien,  an  important  shipping  point. 
It^yjaarbor  was  full  of  light-draft  vessels.  Others 
anJBr  off  the  keys,  outside,  and  send  their  cargoes  in 
by  lighter. 

From  Caibarien  we  dropped  south  to  Placetas  del 
Norte  over  a  narrow-gauge  line  which  threads  its  way  up 
grade  and  down,  through  highlands  where  banana 
groves  thrive  among  jagged  rocks  and  cane  flourishes 
in  pleasant  valleys  between  strange,  pointed  hills, 
thickly  wooded.  Our  little  train  staggered  up  the 
steep  incline,  attaining,  it  seemed,  the  divide  with  diffi- 
culty :  from  that  height  we  looked  back  and  down  over 
the  way  we  had  come,  seeing  Caibarien  and  the  coast  at 
our  feet,  with  the  wide  blue  sea  beyond.  All  about  lay 
a  verdant  tropical  country.  The  region  was  delightful 
in  every  aspect,  and  a  cool  fresh  breeze  blew  in  from  the 
ocean.  High  on  these  uplands  are  located  some  of  the 
finest  sugar  estates  in  the  island,  —  Altamira,  San  Pablo, 
San  Jose,  and  San  Agustin,  bringing  their  sugar  down  by 
private  line  to  the  one  small  station  of  Zulueta ;  Adela, 
patronizing  Vinas ;  and  Zaza,  Placetas  del  Noxte^  whera>__ 
presently,  we  arrived.  This  town  has  the  reputation  of 
being  the  highest  above  sea  level  of  any  in  Cuba.  I  ^ 
remember  the  magnificent  trees  of  the  plaza ,  —  and  the 
wretched  discomfort  of  the  cramped,  hot,  noisy  hotel. 
We  made  the  five  kilometers  from  Placetas  del  Norte  to 
Placetas  del  Sur,  and  here,  thundering  out  of  the  un- 
known east,  came  the  Havana-Santiago  through  train, 
to  pause,  pick  us  up  with  a  snort,  and  continue  along 
its  way  late  and  in  a  hurry. 


CHAPTER  XX 


CAMAGUEY 


Famous  fOThorses  and  women,  —  the  province  of  Camaguey. 
^~~~  .  — From  "  Cuba's  Kentucky." 

Eastern  Cuba  is  no  longer  unknown  to  me,  for  IVe 
traveled  it  pretty  well  over  this  past  year,  leaving 
Havana  invariably  by  the  night  train  that  pulls  away 
from  Villanueva  station  at  nine  o'clock ;  there  is  a  day 
train  but  it  happens  that  I  have  never  taken  it.  On 
each  occasion  IVe  awakened  late,  well  rested  (for  the 
sleepers  are  cool  and  clean),  and  on  each  occasion  IVe 
been  able  to  identify  my  whereabouts  by  the  gayly 
tinted  houses,  at  the  foot  of  queer  little  hills,  which  are 
Zaza  del  Medio.  Of  all  the  country  between  Havana 
and  western  Santa  Clara,  except  that  to  the  north  which 
I  have  just  described,  I  have,  unfortunately,  seen 
nothing  at  all. 

From  Zaza  del  Medio  a  branch  of  the  Cuba  Rail- 
road (this  road  serves  all  Cuba  east  of  Santa  Clara  City) 
runs  south  over  a  distance  of  seven  miles  to  Sancti  Spiri- 
tus,  through  a  rich  country,  well  watered,  rolling,  pro- 
viding large  pastures  where  it  is  not  cultivated  in  cane 
and  tobacco.  On  every  hand  are  evidences  of  industry 
and  prosperity :  now  the  tall  chimmeys  of  Tuinucu 
sugar  mill  (standing  at  the  end  of  a  wide  drive  leading 
from  the  little  station  which  bears  its  Indian  name), 
or,  again,  workmen  busy  among  tobacco  plants  where 
poles  arranged,  at  the  season  we  passed,  at  regular  inter- 

396 


CAMAGUEY  397 

vals  through  the  fields  exposed  the  leaf  to  the  curing 
rays  of  the  sun. 

The  city  of  Sancti  SiOT2tus_(present  .population^  - 
17,440)  was  ordered  fouhded  in  1514  by  Diego  Velazquez, 
and  actual  settlement  commenced  in  1516.  In  1544,  its 
inhabitants  numbered  18  families,  14  negro  slaves,  and 
50  domesticated  Indians.  By  1667,  it  was  rich  enough 
to  tempt  pirates,  who  invaded  it,  "to  the  detriment,^' 
so  the  historian,  Pezuela,  observes,  '^of  the  persons  and 
properties  of  its  people.  ^^  In  1719,  it  was  sacked  once 
more  by  French  and  English  corsairs  from  the  Bahamas, 
who  retired  only  when  threatened  by  armed  reenf orce- 
ments  coming  to  its  rescue  from  Trinidad  and  Villa 
Clara.  From  the  devastation  inflicted  by  these  un- 
desirable guests  Sancti  Spiritus  recovered,  however, 
thanks  to  a  lively  smuggling  trade  carried  on  through 
the  south  coast  port  of  Tunas  de  Zaza.  Money  made  in 
ilhcit  business  was  invested  in  honester  undertakings 
and  the  community  prospered.  In  1741,  and  again  in 
1754,  fires  almost  obliterated  Sancti  Spiritus,  yet  the 
people  roofed  their  new  buildings  with  the  usual  palm 
thatch  regardless  of  the  danger ;  in  1766  another  confla- 
gration punished  them  for  their  carelessness.  This  time 
the  town  was  rebuilt  of  brick,  masonry,  and  tile,  taking 
on  much  of  the  picturesque  appearance  it  wears  to- 
day. Its  streets  constitute  a  maze;  they  are  very 
narrow  as  well  as  crooked.  Some  are  steep,  and 
most  are  paved  with  cobbles,  laid  in  places  in  fancy 
patterns. 

We  hired  an  automobile,  and  rode  forth  in  state  to  see. 
We  skidded  around  corners  and  raced  full  speed  down 
hills.  Children  cheered  our  mad  career.  Countrymen 
hurried  forth  from  corner  cafes  to  seize  their  terrified 
horses.     Some  led  their  mounts  right  into  the  nearest 


398  CUBA 

houses.  I  give  my  word  we  rattled  the  plaster  and 
whitewash  from  the  house  walls  as  we  raced  along. 

Near  the  town,  on  the  banks  of  the  Yayabo  River,  is 
a  pumping  station  which  raises  most  of  that  stream  to 
a  reservoir  on  a  hill  near  by,  from  where  it  is  distributed 
to  the  city  below.  On  the  bank  above  the  pumping 
station  is  the  ruin  of  the  private  home  of  the  concession- 
aries. The  front  is  pitted  with  bullet  holes  and  larger 
indentations  made  by  shells,  in  sharp  engagements  here 
between  Cubans  and  Spaniards  during  Wars  of  Libera- 
tion. The  approach  to  the  villa  must  have  been  im- 
posing in  its  prime ;  only  one  file  of  the  great  laurel 
trees  which  shaded  it  remains.  From  the  hill  where  the 
reservoir  is,  approach  to  which  is  marked  by  younger  trees 
grown  since  the  Spanish  wantonly  destroyed  their  par- 
ents, a  beautiful  view  of  the  city  is  to  be  had.  On 
the  other  hand  is  open  country,  pleasantly  diverse  in 
nature.     On  the  horizon  are  hills. 

There  is  no  station  of  any  particular  importance  be- 
tween Zaza  de  Medio  (if  that  be  considered  important !) 
and  Camaguey.  The  railroad  tracks  continue  their 
marked  southerly  trend,  keeping  close  to  the  very 
middle  of  the  island.  Between  Taguaso  and  the 
station  of  Jatibonico  the  boundary  line  is  crossed  and 
one  enters  into  the  Province  of  Camaguey.  The  sugar- 
house  at  Jatibonico  appeals  to  me  as  about  the  homeliest 
I  have  yet  beheld  :  it  is  severe,  rectangular,  and  an  ugly 
gray.  It  is  said  to  contain  the  finest  sugar  machinery 
in  the  republic,  a  circumstance  of  more  importance 
than  its  exterior.  Some  gardening  is  being  done  around 
about  it,  in  laudable  attempt  to  make  the  place  look 
inviting.  All  the  little  stations  along  here  ship  cattle 
and  hard  woods. 

The  hard  woods  of  Cuba  are  numerous  and  beautiful. 


C AM  AGUE  Y  399 

Some  of  them  are  the  best  cabinet  woods  known. 
Very  beautiful  furniture  is  made  of  majagua,  for  in- 
stance, an  exquisite  greenish  wood  which  takes  a  high 
pohsh.  Acana,  now  used  largely  for  railway  ties  and 
bridge  timbers,  is  a  magnificent  carving  wood.  Wher- 
ever transportation  facilities  have  permitted  removal 
of  logs  these  woods  are  scarce,  but  in  the  center  and 
east  of  the  island,  inland,  where  there  were  no  such 
facilities  until  very  recently,  much  good  timber  is  still 
to  be  found.  The  logs  lie  around  some  of  the  platforms 
at  these  flag  stations  like  a  jam  on  a  northern  river. 
Many  enterprising  American  settlers  in  the  center  and 
east  of  the  island  have  built  themselves  homes  of  hard 
woods  which  elsewhere  would  cost  fortunes.  At 
Omaja  asad  at  Bartle  especially  I  have  seen  excellent 
effects  in  paneling.  Mahogany  furniture  is  common  ; 
the  polished  is  a  little  scarce,  for  cabinet  makers  are  the 
same,  but  high-seated  square-cut  chairs  of  the  solid 
wood  in  natural  state  are  plentiful,  —  and  the  house- 
wives who  have  them  complain  that  they  are  heavy  to 
lift! 

At  Ciego  de  Avila  Chinamen  serve  meals.  They  are, 
withal,  very  good  meals.  The  Chinaman  who  holds 
the  concession  here  and  at  Alto  Cedro  is  a  character. 
Employees  of  the  railroad  company  will  tell  you  that 
^^Chong  is  one  good  Chink.  ^^  They  say  that  on  one 
occasion,  in  the  carefree  days  of  construction  work, 
some  of  ^Hhe  boys,'^  feeling  a  little  hilarious,  took  it 
out  on  Chong^s  eating  house,  which  they  wrecked 
in  a  transient  spirit  of  playfulness.  Next  morning, 
the  fact  that  to  a  man  they  were  sorry  for  what 
they  had  done  did  not  restore  the  broken  crockery 
and  disabled  chairs.  The  manager  of  the  railroad 
company,  informed  of  the  trouble,  sent  for  Chong,  and, 


400  CUBA 

obediently  he  traveled  to  the  ^^boss. ''  He  confessed 
that  the  incident  had  occurred,  —  yes,  unfortunately, 
windows,  tables,  and  kitchen  utensils  were  smashed. 
He  was  not,  however,  quite  able  to  say  just  who  had  done 
it;  no,  he  had  not  recognized  anybody.  Indeed,  he 
could  not  say  whether  the  miscreants  were  his  regular 
customers  and  employees  of  the  company  or  not.  It 
was  night,  and  both  his  eyes  and  his  memory  were  very 
bad,  —  very  bad.  The  manager,  dismissing  him,  or- 
dered him  to  render  a  bill.  Chong  did  ;  it  read,  ''One 
rough  house,  $70  American  money. ''  The  manager  sent 
it  down  to  camp  where  the  little  affair  had  occurred. 
Whether  it  was  paid  or  not  he  has  not  since  inquired,  I 
understand,  for  somehow  the  matter  dropped  out  of 
official  cognizance.  New  dishes,  new  chairs,  new  tables, 
and  a  complete  renewal  of  good  will  returned  to  the 
eating  house;  and  up  and  down  the  line  his  reputa- 
tion prevails,  —  ''Qhmg  is  qne_^od  Chm^ 

At  Ciego  the  railroad  crosses  the  famous  military 
road  (trocha)  built  from  Moron  on  the  north  side  to 
Jucaro  on  the  south  by  Spaniards,  who  patrolled  it,  as 
a  barrier  against  Cuban  insurgents.  Little  forts  stood 
at  short  distances  apart  along  its  length,  —  dismantled, 
battered,  covered  with  moss,  draped  with  vines,  they 
are  there  yet,  —  so  picturesque  and  poetic  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  they  were  ever  intended  for  other  than 
decorative  purposes.  A  very  narrow-gauge  railroad 
runs  now  along  the  line  of  the  trocha.  It  makes  acces- 
sible certain  sugar  mills  and  citrus  fruit  colonies  (Ce- 
ballos).  East  of  Ciego  de  Avila  the  through  train's  route 
is  through  thick  forests  and  less  wooded  pastures,  with 
here  and  there  a  sawmill  at  work.  It  emerges  upon  a 
plain,  and  here,  midway  between  coasts  and  852  feet 
above  sea  level,  is  the  city  of  Camaguey. 


CAMAGUET  401 

Camaguey  is  the  aboriginal  Indian  name  for  the  region 
into  which  Diego  Velazquez  sent  Panfilo  de  Narvaez  to 
establish  his  authority  in  1511-1512.  As  Narvaez 
moved  westward,  the  Indians  thronged  the  villages 
through  which  his  cavalcade  passed,  bringing  gifts  of 
fish  and  fowl  and  cazabi  bread  to  the  Spaniards,  who 
accepted  it  as  their  due,  and  asked  for  more.  At  some 
distance  from  the  native  village  of  Caonao  (which  may 
have  been  the  site  of  either  Sancti  Spiritus  or  Camaguey) 
where  the  Conquerors  massacred  without  valid  excuse 
those  same  Indians  who  rescued  Hojeda  and  his  men, 
^ treating  them  as  though  they  thought  them  angels/' 
Narvaez  made  the  first  Spanish  settlement  in  all  this 
region. 

The  settlement,  however,  which  later  developed  into 
^Hhe  always  faithful,  very  noble  and  very  loyal  city 
of  Santa  Maria  de  Puerto  Principe, '' — now  Camaguey, 
—  was  not  made  until  1515,  on  order  of  Velazquez,  and 
then  at  a  point  on  the  north  shore,  possibly,  as  I  have 
said,  at  or  near  Baga,  on  Nuevitas  Bay.  It  must  have 
removed  to  the  interior  very  early  (1530?),  for  no 
records  and  few  traditions  of  its  original  location  re- 
main. 

Most  distinguished  among  the  first  residents  in 
Camaguey  was  that  very  picturesque  character,  Vasco 
Prur^aJlojie  Figueroa.  He  was  young  when  he  identi- 
fied himself  with  the  town ;  he  was  of  noble  birth  and 
was  in  high  favor  with  the  governor,  Velazquez.  But 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  had  already  helped  to  found 
five  other  cities  (Santiago,  Bayamo,  Trinidad,  Sancti 
Spiritus,  and  San  Juan  de  los  Remedios) .  He  was  noted 
for  his  courage.  Once  he  rode  into  Sancti  Spiritus  pell- 
mell,  with  twenty  men  at  his  back,  to  quell  a  row 
among  the  inhabitants  which  was  a  reflection  of  inter- 

2d 


402  CUBA 

nal  troubles  in  Spain.  He  beat  up  the  mayor,  took 
away  his  rod  of  authority,  arrested  everybody  in  sight, 
snatching  one  man  even  out  of  a  church  where  he  had 
taken  refuge.  He  was  brutally  cruel  to  the  Indians. 
In  1527,  he  reenforced  Panfilo  de  Narvaez  for  his  dis- 
astrous exploring  expedition  to  Florida.  Narvaez, 
the  year  before,  had  been  made  Adelantado  of  the  ter- 
ritory above  Las  Palmas  River  and  in  Spain  had  re- 
cruited men  in  numbers  sufficient  to  need  five  ships; 
with  this  fleet  he  arrived  at  Santiago  de  Cuba.  Coast- 
ing along  the  south  shore  he  encountered  a  hurricane. 
It  was  the  damage  this  storm  did  him  which  Porcallo 
in  part  repaired  with  gifts  of  money,  men,  and  animals. 
When  in  1538  Hernando  de  Soto,  newly  appointed 
governor  of  Cuba,  marched  through  Camaguey  at  the 
head  of  the  men,  handsomely  equipped,  whom  he,  in 
his  turn,  proposed  to  lead  to  the  conquest  of  Florida  and 
all  that  lay  north  of  it,  Porcallo,  who  was  tranquilly 
getting  rich  off  his  possessions  (Indians,  lands,  and  cattle) , 
not  only  contributed  to  the  undertaking,  but  further- 
more accepted  a  commission,  and  himself  accompanied 
De  Soto.  The  expedition  sailed  bravely  enough  from 
Havana  in  1539,  and  soon  after  the  landing  in  Florida 
Porcallo  saved  it  from  annihilation  by  a  spirited  cavalry 
charge ;  but  immediately  after  in  attempting  to  persuade 
his  men  to  cross  a  swamp,  he  was  pitched  headlong  from 
his  horse  and  treated  to  a  nasty  ducking,  which  fully 
convinced  him  that  he  was  an  old  and  a  useless  man.  He 
left  the  expedition  in  the  first  caravel  sent  back  for  sup- 
plies, and  returned  safely  to  Camaguey  from  Havana. 
A  son  remained  with  De  Soto  to  fill  his  father's  place  at 
the  front ;  this  son  was  one  of  few  members  who  sur- 
vived the  horrors  of  that  expedition.  In  Camaguey  Por- 
callo continued  to  prosper.     He  lived  (1562)  ^4ike  a 


CAMAGUEY  403 

lord, ''  the  chroniclers  tell,  "  with  many  servants,  a  house 
well  furnished,  and  when  he  visited  the  towns  around 
about,  he  carried  attendants  and  impedimenta,  like  a 
grandee  of  Spain ;  in  those  days  he  was  always  accom- 
panied by  a  chaplain  who  said  mass  for  him  and  admin- 
istered the  sacraments/^  It  is  implied  that  the  treat- 
ment he  accorded  the  Indians  who  fell  to  his  lot  in  his 
younger  days  weighed  heavy  on  his  soul  in  his  last  years  ; 
he  believed  he  needed  the  kindly  consideration  of  the 
Church.  When  the  people  of  Peru  revolted  against 
Pizarro,  Porcallo  spent  a  fortune  on  a  relief  expedition, 
commanded  by  a  son  of  his.  This  considerably  re- 
duced his  means.  Nevertheless,  he  was  at  the  time 
of  his  death  a  rich  man,  honored  and  respected  by 
all  the  community  of  Camaguey.  His  sons  were 
leaders  in  the  country,  and  his  daughters  married 
well,  even  those  among  them  who  were  illegitimate 
and  part  Indian. 

It  is  probable  that,  as  they  say,  Camaguey  moved 
early  into  the  interior  from  the  coast  to  escape  the  un- 
welcome attention  of  pirates,  and,  with  due  apology 
to  all  interested,  honesty  compels  me  to  remark  that 
they  were  enterprising  pirates  indeed,  and  deserving 
of  booty  in  recompense,  who  traveled  on  foot  or  on 
horseback  across  those  desolate  palm  barrens  over 
which  the  Puerto  Principe  railroad  hurries  between 
Nuevitas  and  Camaguey  to-day.  If  it  was  the  inten- 
tion to  place  between  the  city  and  its  port  country  most 
likely  to  discourage  callers,  those  earliest  colonists  were 
^^good  pickers, '^  for,  although  there  are  fertile  lands 
north  of  Camaguey,  off  the  cross-island  railway  and 
along  water  courses  (they  show  gratefully  green  on  ap- 
proach, like  oases  in  a  desert),  of  all  dreary,  God-forsaken 
regions  on  the  surface  of  this  globe,  my  experience  ranks 


404  CUBA 

the  palm  barrens  just  north  of  Camaguey  City  first  and 
foremost  in  bad  preeminence. 

Despite  precautions  Henry  Morgan  sacked  the  settle- 
V  ment  in  1668.  "In  the  Isle  of  Pines  he  had  assembled 
^^  twelve  ships  and  700  English  and  French  rascals  with 
intent  to  take  Havana,  attacking  from  landward  via 
Batabano.  Convinced  that  he  could  not  succeed  in  this, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  next  most  valuable  prize, 
which  was  Camaguey.  He  sailed  eastward  from  his 
rendezvous,  and  landed  at  a  convenient  point  on  the  south 
side  of  Cuba.  The  people  of  Camaguey  were  warned 
of  his  approach  by  a  runner  crying  (on  the  morning  of 
March  29)  :  ^^The  English  are  at  La  Matanza,  says 
Father  Galceran!''  Father  Galceran  was  the  parish 
priest  who  had  sighted  Morgan's  men  from  his  country 
home.  It  is  said,  too,  that  a  Spaniard,  escaping  from 
the  pirates'  ships,  made  his  way  to  the  city  with  infor- 
mation of  their  purpose.  The  inhabitants  buried  their 
valuables.  The  women  and  children  fled  into  the 
country.  The  men,  poorly  armed,  mustered  under  the 
alcalde.  The  defenders  at  their  best  numbered  800,  all 
untrained,  badly  equipped,  of  whom  100  only  were 
mounted.  Morgan  easily  routed  them,  taking  the 
town.  He  shut  all  who  offered  resistance  into  the  two 
principal  church  buildings  while  he  and  his  followers 
looted  the  place.  They  tortured  those  persons  they 
thought  might  be  so  persuaded  to  give  up  more  jewels 
and  money.  They  drank  and  ate  up  all  available  stores, 
while  the  legitimate  owners  hungered  and  thirsted  in 
the  prison-churches.  Finally,  they  went  off,  accept- 
ing as  ransom  500  cattle,  delivered  aboard  the  pirate 
ships,  with  salt  for  curing.  Other  pirates  returned  to 
Camaguey  next  year,  but  were  beaten  off  (February  23, 
1669). 


CAMAGUEY  405 

The  city,  meanwhile,  recovered  rapidly  from  the 
devastation  Morgan  inflicted.  With  it  the  whole 
district  grew  in  importance  and  arrogance. 

In  1728,  the  governor  of  Santiago,  Don  Juan  del 
Hoyo  Solorzano,  being  in  dire  trouble,  fled  to  Camaguey 
to  avoid  arrest.  The  people  of  the  city  where  he  sought 
refuge  stoned  the  cavalry  that  came  after  him.  He 
was  a  genial  rascal,  and  the  camagueyanos  liked  him. 
They  resented  it  when  he  was  removed,  finally,  by 
force.  Later  they  made  other  violent  objections  to 
enforcements  of  the  authority  not  only  of  the  governor 
but  of  the  captain-general,  and  the  Audiencia  itself ; 
the  governor  resided  in  Santiago,  the  captain-general 
in  Havana,  and  the  Audiencia  in  Santo  Domingo. 
The  government  therefore  set  over  Camaguey  a  capitan 
a  guerra,  whose  duty  it  was  to  tame  the  spirit  of  its 
people. 

The  whole  region  was  prosperous.  The  cattle  busi- 
ness thrived,  and,  moreover,  there  was  profitable  smug- 
gling between  Camaguey  and  British  and  Dutch 
buccaneers.  The  district  carried  on  a  large  and  illegiti- 
mate trade  with  the  isles  and  mainland  holdings  of 
other  nations  than  Spain  (as  did  every  other  section  of 
the  island)  the  while  its  commercial  relations  with  the 
mother  country  also  developed  rapidly. 

In  1800  the  Audiencia  of  Santo  Domingo  removed 
to  Camaguey,  where  it  remained  until  1838,  when  it  was 
transferred  to  Havana.  While  the  Audiencia  stayed  the 
city  swarmed  with  litigants,  having  cases  before  that 
court ;  they  dropped  their  money  into  the  hands  of  the 
camagueyanos,  who,  wiser  than  their  benefactors,  in- 
vested it  in  cattle  and  in  cane. 

In  1814  Camaguey  was  organized  as  a  province  (called 
Puerto  Principe).     There  were  then  only  three  prov- 


406  CUBA 

inces;  it  was  the  middle  one,  between  Havana,  em- 
bracing all  the  west  of  Cuba,  and  Santiago,  comprising 
all  the  east.  By  1827,  its  chief  city  (Camaguey,  of 
course)  had  become  the  second  in  the  island.  It  now 
ranks  fifth,  Havana,  population,  297,159  ;  Santiago  de 
Cuba,  45,470;  Matanzas,  36,009;  and  Cienfuegos, 
30,100,  preceding  it. 

The  city  of  Camaguey  looks  its  antiquity.  It  is 
full  of  quaint  and  picturesque  corners.  ^^The  project- 
ing wooden  window  grilles,  the  heavy  cornices  and 
overhanging,  fluted  tiled  roofs,  the  crumbling  masonry, 
and  the  venerable  aspect  of  streets  and  houses,  make  a 
succession  of  attractive  pictures  which  lure  the  visitor 
to  extended  explorations.  Many  of  the  streets  are  so 
tortuous  that  it  is  impossible  to  see  far  ahead,  and  one 
is  continually  piqued  to  discover  what  new  pictures 
may  be  around  the  bend.  No  two  streets  in  Cama- 
guey run  parallel,  nor  do  any  two  meet  at  right  angles. 
(The  story  is  that  they  were  laid  on  the  plan  of  a  laby- 
rinth, or  followed  the  homeward  meanderings  of  leisurely 
cows,  to  befool  pirates,  as  in  a  maze  !)  The  street  plan 
is  a  study  in  curves :  the  stranger  must  direct  his 
course  by  pure  orientation.'' 

Among  the  chief  attractions  of  Camaguey  are  reck- 
oned its  churches.  They  actually  look  older  than  they 
are.  The  cathedral  existed  (in  organization)  when 
the  settlement  becoming  Camaguey  stood  on  the  north 
coast.  The  building  originally  erected  for  it  here  was 
burned  on  December  15,  1616,  in  a  fire  which  destroyed 
almost  all  the  town.  The  present  edifice  was  at  once 
begun.  Its  construction  cost  $16,500  at  a  time  when  a 
dollar  was  worth  more  in  labor  and  materials  than  it  is 
to-day.  Funds  were  contributed  by  the  State  and  by 
private  persons.     The  first  tower  was  built  in  1776; 


CAMAGUEY  407 

it  fell  through  the  roof  soon  after.  The  present  tower 
was  built  in  1794.  The  building  was  improved  in  1775. 
La  Merced  ^^was  built  about  the  year  1628,  by  mis- 
sionaries of.  Our  Lady  of  Mercy.  ...  In  Camaguey 
the  order  died  out  until  only  one  old  priest  was  left  to 
care  for  the  church  ;  before  his  death  it  was  taken  over 
by  the  Barefoot  Carmelites,  .  .  .  The  architectural 
lines  of  the  church  are  interesting,  but  there  is 
lacking  richness  of  mural  decoration.  The  high  altar 
of  silver  is  resplendent ;  it  was  fashioned  of  40,000 
Spanish  dollars.  There  is  a  sepulcher  of  hammered 
silver,  weighing  500  pounds,  which  contains  an  effigy 
of  the  body  of  Christ.  .  .  .  The  church  is  remarkable 
for  its  extremely  massive  construction.  .  .  .''  I  quote 
the  Standard  Guide.  My  own  inspection  of  these 
churches  has  been  cursory.  It  included  La  Caridad, 
on  the  outside;  we  could  not  get  in.  The  building 
dates  from  1734.  And  La  Soledad,  which  was  a  her- 
mitage in  1697 ;  the  present  building  was  begun  in 
1758,  and  the  frescoes  (rather  weak  in  both  design  and 
execution,  if  I  am  any  judge)  which  do  make  it  unique, 
date  from  only  1852.  I  found  here  a  charming  old 
priest ;  he  interested  me  more  than  any  other  ancient 
fixture,  —  not  excluding  the  ^^coal  black '^  San  Benito 
on  one  altar,  —  I  do  not  recall  in  which  church.  This 
priest  apologized  for  the  ^^  abandoned  ^^  condition  of 
La  Soledad,  for  the  erasure  of  the  frescoes  where  the 
rain  had  beaten  in,  for  the  cobwebs  and  the  dust,  and 
the  general  dilapidation  inside,  and  especially  for  its 
timeworn  appearance  outside,  which  was,  of  course, 
by  far  the  most  attractive  detail  of  the  whole.  He 
went  on  to  say  that,  as  I  must  have  noticed.  La  Merced 
had  recently  been  painted;  it  had,  as  no  one  could 
fail  to  observe,  been  painted  in  a  checkerboard  design 


408  CUBA 

in  most  atrocious  coloring.  I  have  not  seen  anything 
in  Cuba  quite  so  aggressively  hideous  as  Merced  in  her 
new  coat.  My  point  of  view  was  evidently  not  one 
with  the  old  priest^s,  however,  for  he  spoke  enviously, 
and  explained  that  it  had  been  the  earnest  intention 
of  its  clergy  to  paint  La  Soledad,  similarly.  Being  short 
of  funds,  they  had  applied  to  Sir  William  Van  Home, 
whose  Cuban  interests  seem  to  center  in  Camaguey. 
Sir  William  had,  I  understood,  not  replied,  but  presently 
there  arrived  a  great  case  by  freight,  for  La  Soledad 
Church.  Unpacked,  it  disclosed  a  very  wonderful  set 
of  new  chimes,  the  gift  of  Sir  William,  who  remarked  in 
a  letter  accompanying  that  he  greatly  admired  La  Sole- 
dad  as  it  is.  Obviously,  if  he  admires  it  as  it  is,  La 
Soledad,  having  accepted  chimes  from  him,  can  hardly, 
with  good  grace,  alter  the  appearance  he  prefers.  Those 
chimes,  they  say,  cost  some  thousands  of  dollars ;  they 
are  chimes  of  the  latest  patent  and  device,  very  won- 
derful, very  sweet,  but  —  nobody  can  ring  them ! 
La  Merced  flaunts  her  paint  and  whitewash.  La 
Soledad  is  not  content  with  silent  chimes.  An  appeal 
had  been  made  to  Sir  William  to  send  a  mechanic  to 
ring  them.  He  had  not  come,  —  and  I  don't  know  of 
anything  more  pitifully  ludicrous  than  the  disap- 
pointment and  despair  of  that  simple,  good  old  priest. 
There  are  two  hotels  at  Camaguey.  One,  christened 
the  Plaza,  is  more  generally  known  as  Ike's,  a  place  to 
obtain  a  good  meal,  especially  if  you  have  sent  word 
ahead,  and  are  expected.  On  the  walls  of  the  dining 
room  are  six  rare  old  engravings,  of  most  particular 
interest  to  students  of  Cuba's  cities  in  their  earlier  days  ; 
under  each,  in  miniature,  is  the  seal  of  the  province  of 
which  the  town  shown  is  the  capital.  Ike  ^^jest  picked 
'em  up";    to    my    notion,  he  gathered  in  a  treasure 


J'lioioijrdph  hy  Aim rtcan Photo Company 

In  the  Patio  at  Hotel  Camaguey 


CAMAGUEY  409 

when  he  did  so.  Hotel  Camaguey  is  famous.  It 
occupies  a  city  block;  the  building  was  erected  and 
long  used  as  a  Spanish  cavalry  and  infantry  barracks. 
In  1902  it  was  purchased  by  the  railroad  company, 
cleansed,  fitted  with  running  water  (from  a  drilled  well), 
baths,  and  furniture  on  simple  lines  of  good  taste. 
Its  charm  lies  in  its  wide,  high  corridors,  through  which 
cool  breezes  loiter,  even  in  the  hottest  weather,  and  in 
its  patiOj  which  is  a  tropical  garden  of  considerable 
extent  and  notable  beauty.  In  the  rear  is  a  tennis 
court,  and  a  truck  garden  from  which  the  kitchen  is 
supplied.  Under  the  new  management,  the  table  is 
good.  I  have  not  found  in  Cuba  a  pleasanter  place  to 
sojourn  than  here.  I  have  never  gone  into  the  east, 
from  Havana,  without  breaking  the  trip  with  at  least 
twenty-four  hours'  stop-over  at  this  hotel,  —  to  rest, 
to  bathe,  and,  so  refreshed,  to  take  renewed  interest 
in  scenes  beyond. 

The  stations  along  the  railroad  in  eastern  Camaguey 
Province  are  logging  camps  or  centers  of  distribution 
for  cattle  ranches.  Between  Ignacio  and  Marti  half 
a  dozen  husky  young  cowpunchers,  —  sombreros,  chaps, 
red  neckerchiefs,  and  quirts,  —  are  sure  to  board  the 
train;  from  the  cantinero  (in  charge  of  the  assorted 
buffet)  they  get  cold  beer  and  newspapers.  I  was 
born  and  raised  in  the  wooliest  part  of  the  Wild  West, 
but  I  had  to  come  to  Cuba  to  see  the  ^4ikes  of  these''  off 
the  stage.  They  are  Americans,  in  charge  of  herds 
they  and  their  fathers  own.  This  is  a  famous  grazing 
region.  From  the  time  of  Vasco  Porcallo  to  date  stock 
raising  has  been  the  principal  occupation  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  this  province.  In  the  early  days  the  cattle- 
men of  Camaguey  supplied  Havana  and  the  Spanish 
fleets  with  jerked  beef;  they  also  supplied  the  English 


410  CUBA 

and  Dutch  buccaneers  who  harried  those  fleets  with 
more  jerked  beef;  they  ate  it  themselves,  and  they 
shipped  it  anywhere  a  market  offered.  They  also  bred 
bulls  for  fighting,  and  riding  horses  of  the  most  desir- 
able qualities.  According  to  latest  statistics  Cama- 
guey  now  ranks  third  among  the  provinces,  graded  ac- 
cording to  wealth  in  live  stock. 

It  ranks  last  in  matter  of  population  (116,269), 
though  second  in  area.  Its  people  claim  that  it  is  the 
^'whitest''  province  in  Cuba,  which,  probably,  is  true, 
for  the  cattle  ranches  into  which  it  has  been  divided  for 
centuries  do  not  demand  much  labor  (hence  black 
slaves  were  few),  a  circumstance  which,  too,  accounts 
for  the  scarcity  of  population. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


V^^ 


COLONIES   OF   ORIENTE 


%'(tjO. 


"Hoeing  an  orange  tree?  Yes,  —  and  shaping  up  a  new  state 
for  the  Yankee  Union,  —  that's  what  he' 8  doing." — The  Havana 
Telegra'ph. 

There  are  many  American  and  Canadian  colonies 
throughout  Cuba.  They  are  pioneer  settlements  fos- 
tered by  land  companies,  by  subsidiary  development 
companies,  and,  more  slowly  but  also  more  surely,  by  in- 
dividual purchasers  of  ten,  twenty,  forty-acre  and  even 
larger  tracts,  many  of  whom,  with  their  families,  reside 
upon  their  estates.  Concerning  conditions  in  these 
colonies  something  has  been  written,  now  and  then, 
usually  on  scant  information,  padding  the  ^'hard  luck'' 
story  of  some  discouraged  settler;  occasionally  the 
American  or  the  British  or  the  Canadian  government 
*  investigates,''  and  charges  and  countercharges  excite 
a  few  newspapers. 

Although  I  have  visited  a  considerable  number  of 
colonies,  especially  in  the  far  west  and  in  the  far  east 
of  Cuba,  I  hesitate  longer  now  to  take  up  the  famous 
case  of  Colonist  vs.  Company,  or,  more  generously, 
vs.  Conditions,  than  I  should  have  hesitated  three  or 
four  years  ago  when  I  had  seen  and  heard  very  much 
less.  These  are  matters  into  which  the  personal  equa- 
tion enters  so  very  largely.  I  have  seen  some  families 
''curl  up"  under  hardships  another  family  twenty  miles 
away  would  have  borne  without  any  recognition  that 
such  hardships  existed.     I  have  listened  to  women  be- 

411 


412  CUBA 

moaning  a  fate  that  compels  them  to  endure  those  things 
my  own  mother,  who  has  heard  wolves  howl  in  Michi- 
gan, and  blizzards  shriek  in  Nebraska,  and  Indians  war- 
whoop  in  Colorado,  referred  to  once  in  a  moment  of 
weakness  as  'Hhe  petty  annoyances  of  lifehere/^  Simi- 
larly, when  you  inquire  whether  or  not  these  colonists 
make  any  money  in  reward  for  their  heroism,  what  is 
one  to  conclude  when  a  Swede  down  at  Bay  ate  says, 
with  a  grin,  '^Ah  tank  so,'^  mentioning  his  profits,  and 
an  American  from  a  middle  western  state,  now  located 
in  Pinar  del  Rio,  names  an  identical  sum  as  his,  and 
growls,  in  conclusion,  '^I  could  do  better  than  that  on 
day  wages  at  home!''  Then  again,  were  they  de- 
ceived into  coming  here  by  lying  literature  issued  by 
land  companies?  An  examination  of  the  literature 
shows,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  that  it  tells  no  lies,  but  does 
exercise  the  art  of  elimination,  very  cleverly.  It  per- 
mits, in  short,  the  reader's  imagination  to  have  full 
swing ;  being  an  American,  he  may  be  relied  upon  to 
erect  his  own  roseate  castles  in  Cuba  upon  very  slight 
suggestive  foundation.  ^^Sea  Island  cotton  thrives 
in  Cuba."  It  does ;  why  add  that  the  boll  weevil  has 
always  managed,  so  far,  to  cut  short  that  thrift  ?  ''The 
climate  is  suited  to  the  mulberry  and  the  silkworm"  ; 
why  mention  in  this  connection  high  cost  of  labor  and 
a  prohibition  on  the  immigration  of  coolies?  ''Cuba 
imports  butter.  ..."  Why  lose  a  deal  by  pointing 
out  to  a  man  that  the  site  he's  buying  for  a  dairy  is  418 
miles  from  the  market  he  proposes  to  produce  for,  and 
there  is  no  ice  plant  within  a  hundred  miles,  no  refrigera- 
tion on  the  cars,  and  no  possibility  of  his  paying  ex- 
press on  his  product  and  competing  with  imported  rivals 
in  price? 

No  truer  remark  was  ever  made  than  Barnum's, 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  413 

to  the  general  effect  that  the  American  pleads  to  be 
^^done/'  He  begs  to  be  gulled  especially  in  matter  of 
real  estate.  ^^  A  pig  in  a  poke^'  is  a  conservative  invest- 
ment compared  with  his  purchases,  especially  of  fruit 
lands  in  Cuba.  In  concluding,  sometimes,  that  he 
might  as  well  take  ^Hhe  candy  from  the  baby'' before 
the  next  fellow  does  so,  the  real  estate  man  seems, 
very  frequently,  to  be  almost  excusable. 

Usually  the  land  company  he  represents  has  done  a 
little  something,  anyhow,  to  earn  the  money.  It  did, 
to  be  sure,  buy  the  land  ^^dirt  cheap,''  —  perhaps  as 
low  as  $2  an  acre ;  that  price  is  no  reflection  upon  the 
quality  of  the  soil.  It  bought  in  a  big  lot,  and,  if  it  is 
a  good  company,  even  as  land  companies  go,  it  cleared 
the  title  and  surveyed  the  tract.  These  are  no  insig- 
nificant services.  It  would  be  too  long  a  digression 
here  to  enter  into  the  intricacies  of  old  circular  surveys, 
measured  only  nominally  from  a  center :  no  outer 
boundaries  were  marked.  Or  into  the  worse  intricacies 
of  titles,  as  these  properties,  measured  not  in  area,  but 
in  imaginarj^  ^^ dollars  of  possession,"  were  subdivided 
and  passed  on  through  transfer  by  sale  and  inheritance, 
until  a  hundred  and  more  persons  owned  parts  of  one 
piece,  none  of  the  hundred  knowing  exactly  what  was 
his  and  what  was  the  other  man's.  Or  to  consider  the 
subterfuges  to  which  the  law  resorted  when  these  circles 
overlapped  or  failed  to  touch,  leaving  queerly  shaped 
unoccupied  parcels  in  between.  It  is  sometimes  a 
work  of  years  to  get  a  title  surely  cleared.  Again,  land 
in  a  colony  which  has  a  company  back  of  it  becomes  in 
proportion  to  the  strength  of  that  backing  preferable 
to  as  good  land  elsewhere,  because  there  is  hope  at 
least  that  a  settlement  will  grow  near  it,  and  that  even- 
tually its  colonists  will  have  the  mutual  assistance  which 


414  CUBA 

neighbors  afford  each  other.  This  is  a  strong  considera- 
tion. 

Of  course,  there  are  companies  doing  business  which 
have  bought  no  land;  Wey  have,  perhaps,  an  option 
on  some.  They  have  made  no  surveys,  though  they 
may  distribute  blue  print  '' advertising '^  maps  just  the 
same.  They  have  cleared  no  titles,  and  can,  therefore, 
neither  get  nor  give  any.  They  have  not  the  ability 
nor  the  money  to  develop  any  settlement  at  all.  Such 
concerns  as  this  are  plain  frauds ;  a  very  little  inquiry 
discloses  their  nature.  Personally,  I  don't  know  of 
any  now  doing  business  on  this  basis,  or  lack  of  basis, 
in  Cuba,  though  any  real  estate  man  here  would,  I  think, 
be  pleased  to  furnish  inquirers  with  insinuations,  any- 
how, that  some  of  his  rivals  belong  in  this  class. 

I  confess  that  sometimes  my  sympathies  are  with  the 
land  company.  They  are  apt  to  swerve  to  the  settler 
when  I  reflect  that  it  is  the  company  that  fosters  in  him, 
I  presume,  the  attitude  of  mind  which  alienates  one's 
consideration  from  him. 

He  arrives  in  Cuba  with  his  mind  made  up  :  he  knows 
all  about  this  country,  conditions  here,  his  prospects 
both  present  and  future.  He  knows  usually  exactly 
where  he  is  going  to  locate,  and  he  will  recite  you  a  string 
of  special  advantages  this  particular  spot  holds  over 
every  other  in  Cuba ;  these,  I  am  confident,  he  has 
accepted,  verbatim  without  investigation,  from  land 
company  literature  or  agents.  He  proceeds  at  once  to 
the  location  he  has  preferred,  and  there  he  camps.  It  is 
an  even  bet  he  selected  his  land  from  a  blue  print  map 
and  paid  something  on  it  before  he  left  home.  Some- 
times he  has  not  the  money,  but  more  often  it  is  the 
inclination  he  lacks,  to  travel  about  over  Cuba  and  see 
for  himself  whether  this  is  the  country  for  him,  and,  if 


COLONIES    OF    OEIENTE  415 

it  is,  what  section  is  the  best  section,  and  in  that  sec- 
tion what  crop  would  be  the  best  crop.  He  prefers 
for  instance  to  pay  $100  an  acre  for  poor  land  which 
happens  to  be  the  best  in  one  colony,  rather  than  travel 
six  hundred  miles  at  the  furthest  and  buy  for  $25  an 
acre  rich  land  as  well  if  not  better  situated  which  will 
not  in  the  long  run  cost  him  two  thirds  as  much  as  the 
first  to  make  profitable. 

Few  people  have  any  conception  of  the  differences 
between  one  part  of  Cuba  and  another.  They  say,  as  I 
have  elsewhere  remarked,  that  in  the  beginning  this 
was  two  islands ;  had  the  sea  bottom  never  risen  be- 
tween them,  connecting  the  halves,  the  two  ends  of 
Cuba  could  not  have  remained  more  widely  different 
than  they  are,  as  it  is.  I  know  a  successful  dealer  in 
lands  at  one  end  of  the  island  who  has  never  traveled 
farther  from  his  own  holdings  than  the  middle ;  he  has 
no  conception  whatsoever  (apparently)  of  what  the 
other  end  is  really  like,  and  there  is  nothing  more  amus- 
ing, though  at  the  same  time  distressing,  than  to  hear 
this  gentleman  hold  forth  on  Cuba  at  large.  His  state- 
ments, allowing  for  some  bias  because  it  is  his  business 
to  sell  land,  are  fairly  true  of  the  region  he  knows.  They 
are  quite  untrue  of  a  good  many  other  sections  of  the 
country,  to  which,  however,  he  applies  them  in  general 
with  an  indifference  which  is  both  pitiable  and  irritating. 
It  is,  however,  precisely  what  he  doesn^t  know  about 
Cuba  which  equips  him  to  sell  a  slice  of  palm  barren  to 
a  North  Dakota  farmer,  and  as  long  as  he  doesn^t 
himself  realize  that  there  is  anything  else  much  better 
to  be  had,  his  crime  is,  perhaps,  less  than  it  sometimes 
seems  to  be. 

At  any  rate  the  conduct  of  the  North  Dakota  farmer 
assists  us  to  condone  it,  for  this  man,  having  purchased 


416  CUBA 

his  land  ''sight  unseen/^  pulls  up  stakes  in  the  North, 
disposes,  sometimes,  of  a  profitable  business  up  there, 
and,  having  landed  in  Cuba,  hustles  as  fast  as  he  can 
make  it  for  his  recently  acquired  estate.  He  will  see 
nothing  of  the  country  en  route ;  he  knows  he  has  just 
bought  the  best  of  it,  anyhow.  He  will  learn  nothing 
of  what  other  men,  elsewhere,  are  doing.  Why  should 
he  ?  He  knows  what  he  is  going  to  do  :  he  is  going  to 
grow  oranges.  The  land  company  is,  here  too,  largely 
responsible  for  his  determination.  I  have  asked  my 
friend  who  sells  land  to  settlers  for  them  to  grow  citrus 
fruit  upon,  if  he  really  considers  its  culture  the  best 
they  might  undertake.  He  extinguishes  me  with  the 
statement  that  he  owns  groves.  ''Do  you  think  I'd 
risk  money  if  I  wasn't  sure?  Haven't  I  thousands 
and  thousands  of  dollars  invested  ?  Et  cetera  !  Et 
cetera  !"  I  fancy  this  is  about  what  he  has  previously 
said  to  the  North  Dakota  farmer.  The  answer  is : 
No,  he  hasn't  any  groves.  The  land  company  owns 
some,  however,  and  they  are  planted  right  where  they'll 
do  the  most  good,  —  in  plainest  sight  from  the  railroad 
train  window,  and  there's  a  big  sign  up  informing  admir- 
ing passengers  whose  groves  they  are.  He  has  not 
thousands  and  thousands  invested  in  it.  The  com- 
pany, it  is  true,  has  expended  some  money  on  its  groves, 
and  I'd  be  willing  to  bet  a  quarter  "good  money" 
against  a  "bald-headed  peseta^ ^  that  it  is  debited  under 
the  head  of  advertising !  He  has  not  made  what 
money  he  possesses  (and  he  has  some,  all  right)  out  of 
the  citrus  fruit  business ;  he  made  it  selling  land. 

The  North  Dakota  farmer  comes  to  know  these  details 
in  time,  but  ere  that  he  has  committed  himself  to 
oranges.  He  wasn't  deterred  by  the  fact  that  he  knows 
nothing  about  his  soil ;  nothing  about  his  crop  ;  nothing 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  417 

about  its  cultivation;  nothing  about  its  marketing. 
I  remember  with  what  a  start  I,  who  honestly  don't 
know  a  pumpkin  from  a  gourd,  or  either  from  a  paw- 
paw, heard  the  hopeful  owner  of  a  six-acre  lemon  or- 
chard already  well  under  way  ask  a  nurseryman  what 
he  meant  by  budding  !  The  nurseryman  paused  for 
a  very  perceptible  moment,  and  stood  gazing  at  the 
ground ;  then,  politely,  he  explained,  but  for  my  part 
I  believe  I  could  pardon  him  if  I  found  out  he  sold 
Valencia  late  oranges  by  the  hundred  to  the  next  cus- 
tomer who  ordered  Duncan  grape  fruit !  There  is  no 
excuse  for  ignorance  like  that ! 

Yet  one  rather  admires  the  nerve  of  these  American 
settlers,  especially  when  the  nerve  carries  to  success, 
for  there  is  no  denying  some  of  these  people  are  succeed- 
ing. It  seems  incredible,  but  in  time  they  learn,  and 
then,  if  luck,  not  foresight,  was  theirs  when  they  chose 
their  land,  and,  more  important  yet,  when  they  selected 
the  variety  of  citrus  fruit  they  planted,  they  will, 
probably,  break  even,  or,  possibly,  ahead  of  the  game. 
If,  however,  luck  was  against  a  man,  he  may,  like  one 
poor  dupe  of  a  dishonest  nurseryman  I  read  of,  take 
five  years  of  heart-breaking  toil  and  privation  to  dis- 
cover that  the  trees  he  has  nursed  to  bearing  are  not 
Valencia  lates  or  navels,  or  any  other  marketable 
variety,  for  which  he  bought  them,  but  sour  stock  which 
bears  a  fruit  inedible,  and  bitter  indeed.  The  nursery- 
man who  sold  them  to  him  has,  of  course,  already 
flitted. 

Of  all  the  colonies  I  have  visited  I  should  prefer,  if 
I  were  to  invest,  some  one  of  those  in  Oriente.  I  have 
seen,  I  think,  about  all  of  them  there.  While  general 
conditions  are  about  the  same  throughout  the  province, 
each  colony  has  its  special  attractions  and  its  particu- 

2e 


418  CUBA 

lar  disadvantages,  and,  what  is  more  interesting,  each 
has  its  own  pecuUar  identity. 

The  most  westerly  colony  in  Oriente  is  Bartle.  The 
town,  on  the  railroad  main  line,  is  laid  out  to  advantage. 
Its  buildings  (plantation  house,  hotel,  stores,  church, 
and  the  homes  of  settlers  who  reside  within  the  town- 
site  limits)  are  sizable  frames,  neatly  painted  white, 
with,  usually,  green  trimmings.  Their  clean  cool  colors 
harmonize  with  the  scene  in  which  they  are  set,  in  such 
manner  that  one's  first  impression  of  Bartle  is  agreeable. 
To  add  to  it,  there  is  a  citrus  fruit  grove  in  plain  sight 
from  the  car  windows ;  it  is  too  far  off  for  passengers  to 
discover,  unless  they  are  experts,  defects  due  especially, 
I  think,  to  shallow  soil,  which  one  observes  when  closer 
to  it.  Before  the  plantation  house  are  American  Wonder 
lemon  trees  hung  with  fruits  as  big  as  pomelos,  for  which 
they  are  readily  mistaken  from  a  distance.  Truck 
gardens  and  small  cornfields,  also  in  evidence,  contrib- 
ute to  the  general  air  of  prosperity  and  industr3^ 
There  are  two  sawmills  at  work,  and,  on  a  siding, 
always  a  car  loading  with  logs  for  shipment.  Finally, 
there  is  at  Bartle  a  pretty  concrete  block  station. 

I  spent  the  best  part  of  two  days  riding  over  this 
tract  and  that  of  another  company,  which  is  contiguous. 
Of  the  25,000  acres  originally  purchased,  approximately 
3000  lie  north  of  the  railroad  tracks  and  the  rest  south 
of  the  line.  The  land  is,  with  very  little  exception, 
covered  with  the  thick  woods  common  to  these  rich 
and  virgin  regions  of  Oriente.  There  are,  however, 
shallow  patches  like  that  under  the  grove  near  the 
station,  and  there  are  savanna  lands  assuredly  less 
desirable  than  others.  About  one  half  of  the  total 
acreage  has  been  sold ;  of  this  about  1628  acres  have 
been  cleared,  and  approximately  310  are   planted  to 


COLONIES    O^    ORIENTE  419 

citrus  fruits.  Water  is  obtained  from  wells,  which  tap 
good  supplies  at  varying  distances,  averaging,  say, 
25  feet ;  there  is  a  driven  well  by  the  depot,  from  which 
by  the  use  of  a  pump  the  railroad  water  tank  is  filled 
from  a  depth  of  147  feet.  Some  houses  have  cisterns 
as  an  insurance  against  mishap,  and  also  because  soft 
water  is  preferred  for  washing  purposes  to  the  hard  of 
the  wells.  There  is  a  small  mineral  spring  near  the 
town. 

There  are  some  150  permanent  residents  on  the 
tract,  including  the  rural  guard  garrison  and  a  few 
Cubans  and  Spaniards  engaged  in  business  there,  one 
of  whom,  at  any  rate,  from  logs  and  guana  is  gathering 
unto  himself  his  share  of  this  country's  currency. 

Guana  is  the  inside  bark  of  the  guana  tree.  To 
olBTain  It  the  tree  is  felled,  left  to  soak  in  water  for  some 
time,  after  which  the  bark  is  stripped  away  in  long  thin 
pieces  very  like  gauzy  cloth.  These  strips  of  material 
are  brought  to  the  factory,  which  is  a  shed,  where  they 
are  trimmed  to  standard  length,  cleaned  smooth  with 
sharp  knives,  and  tied  into  neat  packs  resembling  bolts 
of  beautiful,  glossy,  cream-colored  silk.  The  guana  in 
this  shape  sells  readily ;  the  first  grade  is  shipped  to 
Europe  (France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain),  there  to  be 
manufactured  into  leghorn  hats,  principally ;  the  other 
Ihree  grades  sell  in  Cuba,  especially  to  tobacco  sections, 
where  the  material,  cut  into  narrow  ribbon  widths,  is 
used  to  tie  up  bundles  of  tobacco  leaves  in  assorting 
houses. 

The  English-speaking  settlers  are  Canadians  and 
Americans,  divided,  to  all  appearances,  about  half  and 
half.  I  visited  many  of  them  in  their  homes,  and  one  or 
two  of  the  houses  I  saw  were  in  themselves  especially 
attractive.     The    forests    around    Bartle    are    rich   in 


420  CUBA 

valuable  hard  woods.  The  settlers  have  made  good  use 
of  many  of  them  in  sealing  the  rooms  of  their  homes. 
In  the  plantation  house  eight  different  varieties  were 
used  in  the  walls  of  the  rooms  downstairs.  One  gentle- 
man, an  expert  in  woods  and  their  application,  has 
sealed  the  front  room  of  his  hoifte  iwith  mahogany  and 
allua  in  alternate  strips  in  the  waihscotting ;  the  upper 
part  of  the  walls  is  majagua  and  the  ceiling  of  allua. 
In  the  dining  room  the  wainscotting  is  majagua^  the 
upper  walls  of  handsome  curly  mahogany^  -and  the  ceil- 
ing of  cedar.  The  stairway  is  trimmed  with  dark 
majagua.  These  woods  have  beea  roiled-^"  give  them  a 
finish.  Their  various  colors  and  grains,  combined  and 
contrasted,  decorate  the  rooms  in  themselves.  Another 
parlor  we  found  similarly  sealed  with  hard  wQpds; 
different  varieties  in  different  patterns  had  not  been 
oiled  and  in  their  natural  state  they  made  the  room 
seem  lighter. 

There  is  much  social  life  at  Bartle,  —  ^'Too  much,'' 
one  uncomplimentary  gentleman  was  heard  to  observe 
morosely,  '^  they  expect  a  man:iio  make  merry  all  night 
and  work  all  day,  and  the  undertaking  is  too  much  for 
me,  so  IVe  cut  out  the  dancing  and  the  ca3fdparties4'' 
There  is  a  Ladies'  Improvement  Society,  the  principal 
purpose  of  which  is  to  keep  the  town  looking  well.  This 
Society  cleared  the  park,  and  fenced  and  planted  it  to 
corn,  profits  from  which  crop  will  go  toward  that  plaza's 
final  embellishment.  The  Society  built  bridges  neces- 
sary to  make  approach  to  the  church  easy.  Meetings 
are  held  bi-weekly,  and  entertainments  are  given,  ad- 
mission fees  going  to  the  good  c^^Jlses  the  ofganization 
espouses.     There  is  a  literary  society. 

There  is  a  post-office  at  Bartle.  There  We  four 
general  stores,  and  a  comfortable  hotel.     There  id  a 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  421 

school  conducted  in  English ;  it  had,  in  January,  1910, 
an  average  attendance  of  twelve  pupils.  There  are 
church  services  every  Sunday,  a  Church  of  England 
minister  from  La  Gloria  alternating  with  a  Methodist 
preacher  from  Camaguey.  There  is  a  reverend  among 
the  residents  now,  who  fills  any  vacancy  that  may  occur. 
One  building,  owned  by  the  company,  accommodates  both 
church  and  school ;  it  is  also  the  town  hall,  and  meetings 
of  a  general  nature  are  held  there,  or  in  the  plantation 
house,  as  occasion  may  demand.  Many  enterprises 
thrive  in  the  community,  among  them  the  sawmills, 
the  new  furniture  factory,  a  monthly  magazine,  two 
citrus  fruit  tree  nurseries,  and  three  or  four  subsidiary 
or  independent  development  companies,  —  one  man- 
aged by  a  woman  who  offers  for  sale  home  sites  sur- 
rounded by  a  variety  of  fruit  trees. 

A  cannery  is  planned.  A  sanitorium  is  half  built. 
An  electric  light  plant  is  contemplated,  in  connection 
with  the  furniture  factory,  and  there  is  voiced  a  longing 
on  the  part  of  the  most  enthusiastic  residents  for  a 
telephone  system  and  street  cars  ! 

In  short,  Bartle  has  not  yet  found  herself. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-eight  acres  of  the  citrus 
fruit  trees  planted  are  grape  fruit,  107  oranges,  and 
5  lemons.  The  settlers  seem  to  believe  that  the  future 
lies  in  pomelos.  They  are  none  of  them  so  far  com- 
mitted, however,  that  they  might  not  change  their  minds, 
or,  without  abandoning  their  groves,  turn  to  cane,  were 
the  project  for  a  mill  which  existed  once  and  has  since 
been  neglected  if  not  abandoned,  or  another  like  it, 
to  presentr  itself. 

Adjoining  the  Bartle  tract  on  the  south  are  a  number 
of  small  estates  and  land  belonging  to  Sir  William  Van 
Home ;   on  the  north  and  west  is  a  cattle  range  owned 


422  CUBA 

by  our  cosmopolitan  friend  of  La  Atalaya;  and  the 
ranch  of  another  ranchman  who  resides  at  Bartle. 
On  the  east  is  the  tract  of  a  company  which  owns  4000 
acres  and  has  platted  a  town  around  the  flag  station  of 
Manigua,  but  patronizes  the  depot  at  Bartle,  for  there 
the  trains  stop. 

The  one  hundred  and  seventy  acres  this  company  has 
cleared  and  planted  to  sour  stock  was,  to  me,  exception- 
ally interesting.  It  was,  to  the  eye,  a  pretty  rough  piece 
of  work,  for  they  had  naturally  followed  the  system  of 
clearing  in  vogue  in  these  heavily  wooded  districts, 
which  is  to  machete  out  the  underbrush,  fell  the  trees, 
and  burn  the  land  over ;  then  to  plant  the  citrus  fruit 
trees  among  the  fallen  and  charred  logs  without  further 
preparation  of  the  soil.  A  circle  is  kept  hoed  about  the 
tree  and  the  grower  endeavors  to  fight  down  the  weeds 
in  all  his  grove,  calling  to  his  aid  a  cover  crop  of  lablab 
or  velvet  beans  or  other  legumes.  Later,  when  the 
logs  and  stumps  have  rotted,  he  begins  to  plow  and 
fully  cultivate.  No  other  system  than  this  just  out- 
lined seems  advisable  in  this  section  of  Cuba.  To 
attempt  to  clean  the  land  completely  would  flatten  a 
fat  purse.  Now,  not  to  clean  it  and  plow  it  and 
eternally  cultivate  it,  is  a  neglectful  proceeding,  accord- 
ing to  a  grower  located,  for  instance,  on  the  Isle  of 
Pines,  where  they  have  a  comparatively  light  vegeta- 
tion to  remove  in  clearing.  Any  time  one  desires  to 
see  a  facial  expression  of  horror  and  hear  exclamations 
of  affright,  describe  to  a  pinero  how  they  do  the  thing  in 
Oriente ;  or,  if  indignation  is  the  emotion  one  would 
arouse,  innocently  inquire  of  a  planter  in  the  east  why 
he  doesn't  keep  his  place  neat  and  clean,  as  they  do, 
you  know,  in  far  Pinar.  This  company  beside  Bartle, 
in  growing  sour  stock  in  the  spots  they  desire  their 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTS  423 

cultivated  trees  to  occupy  eventually,  is  following  a 
system  I  understand  has  been  proven  elsewhere.  The 
idea  is  to  avoid  transplanting  of  the  roots,  and  this  is 
said  to  prevent  gummosis.  Budding,  of  course,  is  done 
as  usual,  but  in  the  field. 

There  are  about  eight  hundred  acres  of  citrus  fruit 
groves  planted  within  a  radius  of  fifteen  miles  around 
the  town  of  Victoria  de  las  Tunas,  east  of  Bartle,  and, 
like  it,  on  the  railroad  main  line.  In  these  orchards, 
too,  grape  fruit  predominates ;  the  acreage  of  oranges 
and  lemons  seems  to  be  about  equal. 

.Tunas  was  a  storm  center_ui-every,  revolution  against 
Spain.  It  was  the  scene  of  a  notable  victory  won  over 
the  Spanish  in  1896,  when  the  place,  although  defended 
by  six  hundred  regulars  and  twoKrupp  twelve-pounders, 
was  taken  after  two  days'  hard  fighting  by  six  hundred 
.Cubans  under  General  CaUxto  Garcia.  Among  the 
officers  in  charge  of  the  Cuban  artillery  was  Frederick 
Funston.  They  showed  me  the  hill  from  which  he  is 
said  to  have  trained  his  guns  upon  the  town.  The 
establishment  of  peace  at  the  close  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War  found  Tunas  in  debris.  During  the 
period  that  has  elapsed  since,  it  has  revived.  Among 
the  fallen  walls  of  former  homes  and  old  places  of  busi- 
ness transaction,  all  about  the  wrecked  church  on  the 
battered  plaza,  houses  have  been  rebuilt,  and  stores 
reopened.  The  railroad  has  inspired  courage,  and 
foreign  capital  has  invested. 

I  rode  fifteen  miles  north  to  the  oldest  grove  in  the 
neighborhood,  Yarigua,  the  property  of  Mr.  R.  B. 
yan  Home.  The  plantatio7r~T!omprises  seventeen 
thousand  acres,  of  which  seventy-one  were  set  to 
citrus  fruit  in  1903  and  abandoned  about  a  year  later. 
I  fancy  investigation  would  disclose  that  it  was  first 


424  CUBA 

intended  to  build  the  railroad  through  or  near  there, 
but  plans  changed.  It  seems  to  me  there  is  no  other 
explanation  why  a  Van  Home  should  plant  seventy-one 
acres  of  citrus  fruit  trees  in  that  particular  spot,  —  at 
the  end  of  fifteen  miles  of  bad  road  leading  out  from  the 
nearest  point  of  present  possible  shipment.  In  mid- 
January,  1909,  Mr.  Burton  was  put  in  charge,  on  con- 
tract to  clear  up  the  grove.  He  cleaned  away  the 
choking  overgrowth  of  weeds,  vines,  and  shrubbery,  dis- 
covered the  buried  trees,  and,  when  I  was  there,  was 
waging  relentless  war  on  blight,  scale,  footrot,  and  all 
the  other  calamities  which  had  accumulated.  He 
was  cutting  down  the  nursery  which  had  outgrown  any 
service.  He  was  planning  to  replace  trees  wild  fires 
had  destroyed.  In  the  thick  grass  in  an  open,  left  origi- 
nally for  the  later  erection  of  a  handsome  plantation 
house,  he  called  our  attention  to  garden  flowers  and 
foliage  plants  which  had  survived  neglect.  Yarigua  has 
in  it  the  making  of  a  very  beautiful  country  place,  and 
from  what  I  hear,  I  have  gathered  the  notion  that  some 
day  it  will  be  the  center  of  a  great  modern  sugar  estate. 
I  remember  with  particular  delight  our  ride  back. 
A  shower  fell,  and  to  avoid  it  we  rode  under  the  hos- 
pitable roof  of  a  countryman  whose  family  assembled 
to  see  the  sight  which  I  was,  according  to  all  their 
ideas  of  decorum,  for  I  rode  astride.  Even  the  dog  — 
a  skeleton,  she  —  stood  paralyzed,  regarding  us,  and 
two  fat  black  and  white  puppies  ran  forth,  seated  them- 
selves under  her,  and  began  to  suckle  with  loud  smack- 
ings, unnoticed  and  unrebuked.  The  guajiro  told  us 
how  well  his  tobacco  crop  had  done  that  season.  He 
bade  a  child  go  fetch  a  bundle  of  his  best  leaf,  —  ''as 
fine  as  Vuelta  Abajo,''  he  pronounced  it,  —  and  so 
indeed  it  looked  to  be.     The  shower  having  passed,  we 


COLONIES    OF    OEIENTE  425 

rode  on.  We  recrossed  a  pasture  where  the  grass  stood 
evenly  to  our  horses'  knees,  waving  in  the  wind  and 
richly  yellow.  In  its  golden  sea  clumps  of  trees  and 
bushes  floated  like  islands.  The  sun  had  reappeared, 
and  from  the  wet  earth  in  the  hollow  into  which  that 
meadow  dipped  he  drew  hot  steam.  Our  passage  across 
was  a  Turkish  bath.  Before  we  reached  home  the 
floods  descended  in  very  truth.  Glad  that  there  was 
no  other  course,  I  bared  my  head  and  took  the  deluge. 
No  drowned  rat  was  ever  sleeker  with  wet  than  I ! 
At  one  point  the  adventure  lost  its  amusement.  There 
was  an  arroyo  to  cross,  down  which  on  one  side  we  found 
a  narrow  path,  worn  like  a  chute  in  clay,  slippery  as 
grease.  Mr.  Fisher  led  his  horse,  which  was  notably 
uncertain  on  its  feet.  When  I  saw  that  animal  sit  down 
upon  its  rump  and  coast,  I  thought  it  wiser  to  dismount 
from  mine,  which,  as  though  to  rebuke  me  for  lack  of 
confidence,  went  down  daintily  without  mishap.  To 
ascend,  we  had  to  make  it  up  the  opposite  bank.  We 
stood  in  the  bed  of  the  stream  and  considered  the  situa- 
tion without  comment.  The  water  was  rising  rapidly. 
My  horse  formed  our  decision  for  us  by  commencing  to 
clamber  up  the  clay.  At  one  juncture  he  paused,  with 
a  grunt  of  disapproval,  to  see  where,  within  six  inches 
of  his  only  possible  path,  the  bank  dropped  straight 
fifteen  feet  to  the  stream.  I  had  the  rare  wisdom  to 
offer  no  advice,  and  with  great  clatter  of  anxious  hoofs 
on  the  bare  rock  that  topped  the  bank,  on  which  it 
seemed  his  unshod  feet  could  find  no  hold,  the  gallant 
animal  righted  himself  with  a  shake  and  a  whinny  on  the 
level  above.  Mr.  Fisher's  horse  followed,  with  what 
protest  I  did  not  see.  We  were  safe,  and  the  ride 
instantly  became  sport  again,  —  mud-spattered  and 
dripping  as  we  were.     If  one  is  willing  to  accept  the 


426  CUBA 

momentary  discomfort  of  its  commencement,  I  don't 
know  of  anything  jollier  than  a  ride  in  the  rain,  in  Cuba. 
The  pouring  water, — it  comes  in  drenching  sheets, — 
washes  the  weariness  and  heat  out  of  one.  It  wipes  the 
sunburn  off.  There  is  no  chill  in  it,  —  only  exquisite 
refreshment  to  all  the  senses,  and  to  the  very  heart 
and  mind. 

The  delights  of  a  ducking  were  evidently  not  under- 
stood by  our  friends  at  ''the  hotel,''  who  surveyed  us 
with  dismay,  discreet  smiles,  some  professed  alarm, 
and  finally,  frank  laughter. 

''The  hotel' '  is  that  two-story  concrete  visible  from 
the  passing  train.  It  stands  on  a  hill.  It  is  a  monu- 
ment to  the  great  plans  of  a  stock  company  which  failed. 
It  is  at  present  the  plantation  house  of  the  owners  of  a 
four  hundred  acre  grove  to  which  I  rode  out  from  there 
with  Mr.  Matteson,  visiting  the  holdings  of  individual 
settlers  en  route. 

Captain  Kies  sent  Big  Black  Ben  and  the  buckboard 
to  convey  me,  later,  over  the  nine  miles  that  lie  between 
Tunas  and  Vista  Alegre,  a  plantation  which  merits  its 
name,  meaning  pleasant  or  delightful  view.  As  we 
jogged  along  Ben  talked,  telling  me  how  this  country,  — 
stretches  of  softly  green  grass  alternating  with  wood- 
lands in  which  tropical  trees  stand  close  together,  bris- 
tling with  orchids  and  hung  with  vines, — had,  "before 
the  wars,"  a  greater  population  than  now.  Then  there 
were  hamlets  where  to-day  only  an  isolated  palm- 
thatched  hut  remains,  or,  in  some  instances,  nothing 
at  all  is  left  save  a  group  of  mango  trees  heavy  with  fruit. 
He  pointed  out  the  ruins  of  an  old  Spanish  fort  on  a  hill, 
built  and  occupied  to  protect  this,  the  military  road. 
He  told  of  fierce  fighting  through  all  this  region  in  '68 
and  again  in  '98,  of  which  he  himself  saw  some  part. 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTS  427 

He  mentioned  men  killed  from  ambush,  and  pointed  out 
where  they  lie  buried.  He  told  me  of  a  meteor  which 
struck  here,  to  judge  by  certain  peculiar  rocks  left. 
There  is  a  spring  of  sweet  water  somewhere  about. 
When  conversation  languished,  I  inquired  concerning 
the  superstitions  of  the  people,  and  learned  that  they 
fear  to  ride  out  at  night,  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead  ride 
with  them,  unless  they  carry  a  light.  Again,  I  inquired 
concerning  buried  treasure. 

I  wish  I  could  tell  as  he  told  it  the  story  of  the  two 
Cubans  who  with  ill-concealed  excitement  came  to  Ben 
to  borrow  shovels  and  a  pick.  They  confessed  that 
a  brujo  (wizard)  had  informed  them  where  a  treasure 
lay  hid.  The  brujo  had  his  knowledge  from  a  bottle  of 
clear  water  into  which  he  gazed,  for  a  consideration. 
Ben  loaned  the  implements,  and  followed  the  borrowers 
at  a  discreet  distance.  From  hiding  on  top  of  a  con- 
venient hill  he  watched  them  dig.  Presently  a  little 
green  fly  flew  into  the  excavation.  Wherever  it  lit  they 
delved  like  mad,  on  the  supposition  that  it  was  the 
spirit  of  the  former  owner  come  to  direct  them.  They 
labored  for  half  a  day  in  vain.  Ben,  wearying  of  looking 
on,  paralyzed  them  by  advising,  as  he  emerged  from  the 
bush,  to  consider  whether  it  was  not  likely  if  the  wizard 
knew,  in  fact,  of  a  treasure,  he  would  unearth  it  for 
himself. 

Vista  Alegre  is  a  plantation  which  fulfills  ideals. 
The  estate,  as  originally  purchased  by  the  com- 
pany, comprised  12,500  acres,  of  which  one  thou- 
sand were  sold  to  a  developing  company  whose  fifty- 
acre  grape  fruit  grove  one  passes  just  before  arriving  at 
the  Vista  Alegre  plantation  house.  Seven  thousand 
acres  of  the  land  the  company  still  holds  are  virgin 
woodland,  of  value  for  the  timber  contained,  which  is 


428  CUBA 

suitable  for  poles,  ties,  building  materials,  furniture,  and 
finest  cabinet  work.  Other  areas  of  the  estate  are, 
apparently,  savanna  lands,  but  in  certain  sections  of 
these  the  plow  discovers  old  stumps  and  buried  roots 
which  are  evidence  that  they  are  not  all  savanna 
proper;  some  were  formerly  forest  lands,  cleared  by  a 
previous  owner,  probably  by  one  Ramon  Pastor,  who  had 
four  thousand  head  of  cattle  on  this  range.  It  was 
Pastor  who  seeded  large  tracts  between  the  ranch  house 
and  Tunas  to  guinea  grass,  and  erected  fences,  the 
hardwood  posts  of  which  still  stand  along  the  road. 
His  brick  house  was  the  center  of  quite  a  settlement, 
wiped  out  in  1897-1898.  It  occupied  the  site  of  the 
present  plantation  headquarters,  where  amid  broken  roof 
tiles  there  were  garden  flowers  growing  wild  when  Cap- 
tain Kies  arrived  to  establish  himself  upon  this  estate. 
His  company  has  since  erected  a  comfortable  house 
for  him  and  his  family,  - — it  is  roomy,  well  furnished,  and 
has  a  bath.  The  dining  room  is  alfresco.  Near  by,  in 
another  building,  are  the  workmen's  quarters.  The  plan- 
tation work  keeps  fifteen  or  twenty  men  and  thirteen 
mules  busy.  There  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of 
groves  when  I  was  there,  of  which  80  per  cent  were  grape 
fruit.  The  oldest  are  just  beginning  to  bear.  Much 
money  has  been  expended  here.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
there  was  more  prospect  of  its  coming  out  again 
with  interest  than  I  recollect  having  felt  I  saw  in  any 
similar  undertaking  in  all  the  island. 

From  Vista  Alegre  a  trail  through  the  woods  leads  the 
adventurous  to  the  neighboring  settlement  of  Omaja. 
I  remember  the  ride  as  one  of  the  most  delightful  I 
have  ever  made.  We  started  early  (two  women  of  us, 
neither  of  whom  really  knew  the  way  !) .  The  road  we 
followed  led  to  the  jungle's  edge,  and  there  almost  disap- 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  429 

peared  among  thick  bush.  It  was  the  rainy  season, 
and  a  Hne  of  muddy  water  twisting  ahead  of  us  showed 
where  others  had,  perhaps  the  night  previous,  traveled 
before  us,  and  this  indication  we  followed.  When  the 
sun  rose  it  shone  first  in  the  tops  of  tallest  trees  and 
climbed  down  them  gradually,  but  never  penetrated 
the  green  gloaming  below  through  which  our  animals 
plodded  on.  Vines  dangling  from  above  rapped  our 
heads,  entangled  our  horses'  feet,  jerked  at  our  stirrups, 
and,  from  leaves  and  branches  overhead,  heavy  showers 
of  water  descended  upon  us  whenever  we  disturbed  the 
slender  trunks  below.  We  were  soon  as  wet  as  though  it 
had  rained.  I  took  delight  in  pulling  at  pendent  vines 
and  listening  then  to  the  sharp  patter  of  the  drops  pre- 
cipitated behind  me  as  I  rode  on.  More  than  once  we 
found  our  trail  blocked  by  fallen  branches ;  we  had  then 
to  work  our  way  around,  coaxing  our  horses  forward, 
with  them  literally  wriggling  our  way  through,  and' 
back  to  the  trail  again  as  quickly  as  possible  lest  we 
lose  it.  At  times  it  followed  close  beside  a  muddy 
clearing  I  was  informed  was  a  road,  —  an  oxcart  road, 
which  these  vehicles  actually  travel.  They  are  drawn 
then  by  ten  and  twelve  oxen,  and  it  takes  them  days  to 
make  half  the  distance  we  covered,  going  slowly  on 
horseback,  in  one.  As  we  had  begun  to  wonder  whether 
or  not  we  were  on  the  right  trail,  —  it  seemed  intermi- 
nable, —  we  heard  voices;  they  sounded  clear  and 
distinct  in  the  silence  of  that  wilderness.  We  met  two 
Cubans,  whose  astonishment  at  seeing  us  was  evident. 
They  assured  us  we  were  upon  the  proper  path,  and, 
shortly,  we  emerged  upon  dry  land,  into  a  clearing  where 
a  hut  stood.  The  sun  was  hot  on  the  savannas  that 
day. 

Pleasant  as  the  ride  through  the  forest  was,  it  suggested 


430  CUBA 

to  me  how  disagreeable  it  would  be  to  lose  one's  self  or  be 
benighted  in  such  a  place.  As  long  as  we  kept  going, 
it  was  cool  and  nothing  troubled  us,  but  the  instant  we 
stopped  mosquitoes  settled  upon  us,  and  stung.  There 
was  a  fly  which  bit  the  ears  of  our  horses.  To  move 
through  there  in  the  dark  would  be  a  physical  impossibil- 
ity. Had  we  been  compelled  to  dismount  we  could  not 
have  found  a  dry  spot  in  which  to  stand  nor  a  cleared 
spot  in  which  to  stretch  our  limbs,  nor  could  we,  I  think, 
have  fought  off  the  insects. 

The  region  around  Omaj^a  is  very  beautiful.  It  was 
until  recently  part  of^ih^liacienda  comunera  Maji- 
bacoa,  a  cattle  range,  and  is  in  part  still  used  for  grazing 
and  breeding  purposes.  Its  lands  are  wooded,  though 
there  are  savannas  here  and  there  amid  the  timbered 
areas.  There  are  running  streams.  At  some  distance 
from  the  railroad  main  line,  on  which  the  town  stands, 
there  are  hills,  and  among  them  we  found  the  aban- 
doned workings  of  old  copper  mines. 

The  population  of  Omaja  was  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  when  I  was  there.  Most  are  Americans,  but  there 
are  some  English  and  Canadians,  and  also  an  industrious 
colony  of  Finlanders.  There  are,  as  usual,  stores,  post 
office,  a  government  school  with  one  American  teacher, 
but  no  hotel :  visitors  find  accommodations  in  the  homes 
of  settlers.  Omaja  is  musical ;  there  are  six  pianos,  seven 
organs,  one  angelus,  and  four  violins,  —  quite  the  best 
showing  of  instruments  I  have  yet  encountered  in  anyone 
settlement.  Church  services  are  held  early  and  often, 
.  for  there  are  among  the  colonists  many  varieties  of 
religious  belief,  Brethren  and  Seven  Day  Adventists 
predominating. 

There  were  seven  hundred  and  ten  acres  of  citrus 
fruit  groves  already  set  at  Omaja  when  I  was  there,  of 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  431 

which  only  46  per  cent  were  grape  fruit.  The  largest 
acreage  belongs  to  a  company  with  head  offices  in  Boston 
which  has  contracted  for  thirty-eight  hundred  acres  of 
land  here  and  had  planted  three  hundred  and  thirty 
acres  to  Duncan  grapefruit  and  Valencia  and  pineapple 
oranges  when  I  rode  through.  I  found  the  companies 
which  center  at  Omaja  to  be  selling  not  so  much  land  as 
groves,  on  contracts  covering  sometimes  nine  or  ten 
years,  with  a  first  payment  in  cash  and  others  monthly 
thereafter,  for  four  years.  At  the  end  of  these  four  years 
cash  payments  cease.  The  customer  may,  generally, 
assume  control  of  his  own  grove  then,  or  he  may  leave 
it  for  another  five  or  six  years  or  indefinitely  in  the  care 
of  the  company,  which  undertakes  to  continue  to 
develop  it,  to  gather  and  to  market  its  product,  on  a 
percentage  of  proceeds.  In  details  of  contract  each 
company  differs  from  the  others  slightly.  The  basic 
idea  is  that  a  large  grove  under  one  control  returns  ^ 
more  per  acre  than  an  equal  area  of  small  groves  each 
under  separate  management. 

There  are  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres 
of  citrus  fruits  out  in  the  vicinity  of  Cacocum,  the  rail- 
road junction  from  where  an  eleven-mile  branch  runs 
northward  to  Holguin,  but  I  have  not  visited  these 
in  passing  through. 

The  city  of  Holguin  lies  at  the  foot  of  a  group  of  hills, 
grass-covered,  the  smooth  sides  of  which  are  relieved 
here  and  there  by  low-growing  palm  trees,  in  the  dry 
foliage  of  which  winds  in  passing  make  a  ghostly  rus- 
tling. All  about  the  hills  are  savanna  lands,  —  uneven, 
grassy,  their  monotony  of  color  broken  only  by  these 
palms,  standing  here  and  there,  solitary  or  together, 
like  straggling  soldiers  on  a  disordered  march.  Hills 
and    savannas    viewed    together    give  the  immediate 


432  CUBA 

environs  of  Holguin  an  arid,  unfertile  appearance; 
the  city  itself  has  the  dry  and  barren  look  of  a  Mexican 
pueblo.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  beyond  the  skirts 
of  the  hills  and  the  savannas  over  which  their  sand 
and  gravel  have  leached,  the  neighboring  lands  are 
rich  and  most  prolific. 

The  region  around  about  the  present  city  of  Holguin 
was  not  settled  until  almost  two  hundred  years  after 
the  Conquest  of  Cuba  in  1511-1512,  though  its  lands 
were  early  parceled  out  in  great  circles  (hatos)  among 
stockmen  whose  ranch  houses  at  the  centers  of  their 
respective  grants  were  long  the  only  visible  signs  of 
Europeans'  residence  in  the  territory.  In  1698  there 
was  a  hermitage  at  Hato  de  Managuaco,  some  leagues 
north  of  the  present  site  of  Holguin.  This  hermitage 
was  moved,  in  1700,  by  Bishop  Compostela  to  Hato  de 
las  Guasimas,  and  again,  in  1720,  it  was  moved  to  Hato 
de  Holguin.  In  going  it  but  followed  after  its  parish- 
ioners, who  had  already  been  attracted  thither  by  the 
more  fertile  lands  there.  From  their  establishment  on 
the  banks  of  the  Holguin  or  Maranon  River  developed 
the  city  of  Holguin  as  it  is  to-day.  The  parish  church, 
founded  on  its  present  site  in  1720,  as  mentioned,  was 
rebuilt  in  1730  and  finished  in  1800  as  it  stands  now. 
In  1726  Holguin  consisted  of  sixty  houses  of  palm  boards 
and  thatch.  At  present  it  has  a  population  of  JZ522-,at 
home  in  commodious  dwellings,  some  of  which  are 
furnished  beautifully.  They  stand  along  streets  of 
which  the  main  avenues  are  in  good  repair ;  the  byways 
are  full  of  cobbles,  once  placed  in  fancy  patterns  as 
pavement.  Thanks  in  part  to  the  absorbent  nature  of 
the  soil  on  which  they  are  laid,  the  streets  are  unusually 
clean.  There  are  good  stores,  and  they  do  a  lively 
business  with  country  residents  whose  undersized  nags 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENT E  433 

are  tied,  in  the  morning,  by  dozens,  along  the  curb. 
When  one  asks  what  really  supports  all  this  very  evi- 
dent activity  and  well-being,  one  touches  upon  mystery. 
Even  its  residents  can  hardly  explain  why  Holguin 
exists,  especially  in  its  particular  location. 

In  the  beginning  the  district  around  about  was  a  - 
cattle  country ;  not  until  the  commencement  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  however,  did  even  that  industry 
attain  importance.  It  is  still  the  leading  interest  of 
residents  in  this  region.  Early,  too,  owners  of  lands 
near  Holguin,  and  in  the  wide  and  shallow  valley  at  the 
head  of  which  it  stands,  grew  sugar  cane.  Remnants  of 
their  primitive  mills  exist,  in  evidence  of  their  industry. 
Coffee  was  exported,  along  with  sugar.  Nowadays  the 
principal  exports  are  bananas,  which  are  sent  out  by 
rail;  honey,  most  of  which  goes  to  Hamburg;  pine- 
apples ;  and,  above  all  things,  sugar,  if  the  great  planta-  _. 
tion  of  Chaparra,  which  is  reached  via  Holguin,  but 
ships  fronPEEeliorth  coast  port  of  Puerto  Padre,  be 
considered  to  lie  within  the  region  under  consideration. 
Chaparra  is  the  largest  sugar  mill  in  the  world,  but  I 
do  not  see  that  it  contributes  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Holguin.  Tobacco_is  grown  all  about  here,  but  in 
quantities  which  do  not  exceed  the  local  demand. 
It  is  very  heavy  quality.  Formerly,  the  exportation  of 
native  woods  (mahogany  and  cedar)  was  an  important 
source  of  revenue  to  Holguin  ;  some  woods  so  hard  they 
are  of  little  service  are  left,  but  the  best  of  the  forest 
products  have  been  removed.  Hard  pine  is  now  im- 
ported ;  in  this  business  and  in  the  sawmill  in  operation 
in  the  town,  Americans  are  engaged. 

Near  Holguin  ar&  the  only  gold  mines  in  operation  in 
Cuba.  The  Indians  whom  its  Spanish  conquerors  found 
in  possession  of  the  island  of  Cuba  had  knowledge  of  gold ; 

2f 


434  CUBA 

they  knew  where  it  was  to  be  found  and  how  to  wash  it 
from  the  sand  of  streams.  They  also  knew  how  to  shape 
it  into  ornaments  for  personal  adornment  which  were 
called  guanines;  what  few  of  these  trinkets  they  had, 
however,  were  not  comparable  either  in  workmanship  or 
value  to  those  treasures  Cortes,  Pizarro,  and  their 
followers  wrested  from  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  and  the 
Incas  of  Peru.  What  crude  ornaments  they  did  possess, 
made  of  or  at  least  decorated  with  gold,  they  do  not 
appear  themselves  to  have  prized  more  highly  than  the 
polished  pebbles  they  strung,  beadlike,  around  their 
necks.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  aboriginal  Cubans  ever 
made  of  their  own  accord  any  extensive  excavations  to 
unearth  gold ;  it  had  for  them  no  extraordinary  value 
until  the  Spaniards  gave  it  such  by  their  relentless  de- 
mands for  nuggets  and  dust. 

Their  desire  for  the  yellow  metal  undoubtedly  puzzled 
the  Indians.  Las  Casas  gives  what  purports  to  be  an 
address,  in  this  connection,  delivered  by  the  famous 
chief  Hatuey  to  the  aborigines  of  Oriente.  ^'More 
Cuban  than  Hatuey  himself  is  a  stock  phrase  applied 
in  the  Spanish  spoken  here  to  a  person  whose  love  of  this 
island  is  very  much  in  evidence  ;  especially  is  it  said  of 
foreigners  when  they  take  to  championing  Cuba  and 
her  institutions  with  an  ardor  not  equaled  by  natives, 
the  reference  being  to  the  fact  that  the  Indian  chief 
named  was  not  born  in  Cuba,  but  in  the  neighboring 
island  of  Hayti.  He  crossed  the  narrow  straits,  how- 
ever, and  was  a  leader  in  the  region  about  Point  Maysi 
when  the  Spaniards  under  Velazquez  invaded.  In  his  own 
land  Hatuey  had  already  experienced  the  manners  and 
methods  of  the  Christians,  and  he  warned  the  Cubans 
that  their  coming  meant  slavery  and  death.  He 
assembled  the  Indians  of  Oriente,  and,  according  to  Las 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTS  435 

Casas,  recalled  to  their  minds  the  persecutions  the 
Spaniards  had  inflicted  upon  the  natives  of  Hayti, 
saying:  ^^You  know  how  these  Christians  have  re- 
mained among  us,  taking  to  themselves  our  lands,  our 
sovereignty,  our  persons,  our  women  and  children, 
murdering  our  fathers,  brothers,  other  relatives  and 
neighbors ;  they  killed  this  king  and  that  lord  of  such 
and  such  a  province ;  they  destroyed  utterly  the  sub- 
jects and  vassals  these  had,  and  if  we  who  are  here  had 
not  fled  from  our  land  into  this  one,  we,  too,  must  have 
perished  at  their  hands.  Do  you  know  why  they 
persecute  us  so,  —  to  what  end  they  do  it?^^  All 
answered:  ^^ Because  they  are  cruel  and  evil/'  But 
Hatuey  said:  '^I  will  tell  you  why,  —  it  is  because 
they  have  a  great  god  whom  they  fondly  love,  and  him 
I  show  you  now/'  He  uncovered  a  little  basket  of  palm 
he  had  (called  in  their  language  haba,  sl  name  which  has 
endured  to  this  day),  and  it  was  full  or  partly  full  of 
gold.  ^^  Behold  here  their  god  whom  they  serve  and 
love  well,  for  whom  they  look.  To  obtain  this  god  of 
theirs  they  afflict  us,  persecute  us.  For  this  they  have 
slain  our  fathers  and  brothers,  with  all  our  kindred  and 
kind.  For  this  they  have  confiscated  all  our  goods, 
and  for  this  they  seek  us  out  and  mistreat  us ;  and  in 
search  of  this  they  come  to '  Cuba  now,  for  they  are 
always  looking  for  this  master  of  theirs.  To  find  him 
they  will  wear  us  out  in  hard  work  as  they  have  done 
the  people  of  my  native  land.  Wherefore,  let  us 
make  a  feast  and  dance  before  this  great  god,  so 
that  when  the  Spaniards  come  he  may  tell  them  to 
do  us  no  harm.''  All  thought  that  it  was  well  to 
honor  the  idol,  so  they  began  to  dance  and  sing,  and 
continued  all  night  from  twilight  till  dawn,  until 
all  were  tired  out.     After  they  had  shown  this  honor 


436  CUBA 

to  the  little  basket  of  gold,  and  were  wearied,  Hatuey 
again  addressed  them,  saying:  ^^Look,  after  what  I 
have  told  you  let  us  not  keep  this  god  of  the  Christians 
in  any  place,  because  though  we  hide  it  in  our  vitals 
they  will  have  it  out ;  therefore  let  us  throw  it  into 
this  river,  into  the  water,  so  that  they  may  not  know 
where  it  is.''  So  they  did,  throwing,  sinking  the  gold 
in  the  stream.  ^^All  this  was  afterward  told  by  the 
Indians  and  reported  among  us,''  Las  Casas  concludes. 
Early  in  the  course  of  the  conquest  of  Cuba  Hatuey  was 
burned  at  the  stake  on  the  charge  of  resisting  the 
Spanish.  His  death  is  said  to  have  quieted  the  far  east 
of  the  island.  That  very  year,  in  a  note  concerning  a 
shipment  of  gold  sent  to  Spain  from  the  City  of  Santo 
^omiogo,  it  is  stated  that  the  consignment  comprised 
a  certain  quantity  from  Cuba,  —  necessarily  from  east- 
ern Oriente,  since  this  was  all  of  Cuba  the  Spanish  as  yet 
controlled. 

In  1514  Diego  Velazquez  wrote  that  he  had  visited  the 
gold  districts  of  the  Province  of  Guanabaya  (wherever 
that  may  have  been),  and  that  he  had  also  obtained  gold 
which  had  been  gathered  by  the  Indians  from  certain 
rivers,  particularly  in  the  neighborhood  of  Jagua 
(Cienfuegos).  The  sands  of  the  Arimao  were  said  to 
abound  in  the  precious  metal.  Velazquez  reported  in 
all  eight  places  in  Cuba  where  gold  occurred  ^4n  large 
quantities."  Between  the  years  1515  and  1534,  accord- 
ing to  records  in  existence,  many  consignments  were 
made  from  Cuba  to  the  mother  country,  the  aggregate 
value  being  about  260,000  pesos, 

Cuba's  gold  seemsLto  have  been  considered  of  superior 
quality  as  compared  with  that  being  sent  during  this 
same  period  from  Hayti,  and,  possibly,  from  Puerto  Rico 
and  from  Jamaica   as   well.     In  fluajitity,   however, 


COLONIES    OF    OEIENTE  437 

it  was  evidently  not  sufficient  to  hold  interest  when  news 
arrived  of  Cortes^  exploits  in  the  treasure  land  he  had 
found.  In  the  years  following  his  departure  for  the 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  in  1518,  Cuba  lost  the  most  adven- 
turous and  avaricious  of  her  newly  acquired  population : 
they  departed  pell-mell  for  the  mainland.  From  the 
era  of  their  going  until  very  recent  date  accurate  infor- 
mation concerning  gold  in  Cuba  is  difficult  to  obtain. 
Yet  the  mines  of  the  island  were  worked.  Operations 
extended  to  Camaguey  and  to  Santa  Clara.  ^^In  1534 
the  governor  of  the  island  reported  to  the  empress 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  V  that  he  had  visited  gold 
mines  in  the  Province  of  Puerto  Principe  (Camaguey) 
which  had  been  of  considerable  value  in  times  past.'' 
In  1868  Manuel  Fernandez  de  Castro,  Cuba's  foremost 
geologist,  made  a  report  on  the  gold  mines  of  Santa 
Clara  Province,  especially  those  in  the  vicinity  of  Gua- 
racabuUa.  Denouncements  have  been  made  as  far  west 
as  Mantua  in  Vuelta  Abajo.  The  far-eastern  province, 
however,  forged  ahead.  Eventually  Oriente,  and,  in 
Oriente,  the  Holguin  district,  obtained  recognition  as  the  "t  f"  <^^ 
principal,  if  not  the  sole,  gold-mining  region  of  Cuba.  ^ 
Tlining  claims  have  been  denounced  in  numbers  all 
through  the  neighborhood,  yet,  excepting  the  Santiago 
mine,  nothing  save  some  prospecting  and  a  little  prelimi- 
nary work  had  been  done,  when  I  was  there  last  fall, 
in  the  way  of  development  of  these  claims.  The  com- 
pany then  operating  the  Santiago  mine  had  put  in 
about  $156,000  worth  of  improvements,  which  consist 
of  waterworks,  amalgamating  and  concentrating  plant, 
sawmill  for  preparing  mine  timbers,  office  and  residence 
buildings.  The  amalgamating  and  concentrating  plant, 
installed  then  over  two  years,  is  small  (thirty-one  tons) 
and  although  run  at   a  loss  due  to  poor  extraction 


488  CUBA 

obtained  had  produced  during  the  time  it  had  been  in 
operation  $89,685.50  worth  of  gold.  Sixty  men,  Span- 
iards, were  then  employed  at  the  works.  The  actual 
diggings  consisted  of  six  thousand  feet  of  gallery ;  the 
greatest  depth  was  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet 
below  the  surface.  Mr.  W.  G.  Grey,  then  resident 
manager,  stated  to  me,  the  day  I  rode  out  to  the  mine 
from  Holguin,  that  when  he  began  work  on  the  Santiago 
he  found  on  the  place  extensive  old  diggings,  filled  in 
and  overgrown  with  tropical  vegetation.  The  last 
work  previous  to  his  own  was  done  by  a  Frenchman,  M. 
Guillien,  who  employed  slave  labor  on  the  mines  for  ten 
years  prior  to  1887.  The  first  work  may  well  have  been 
done  by  the  aborigines  themselves,  for  their  Spanish 
masters ;  that  they  appreciated  the  locality  is  evident 
in  the  name,  Sucunucun,  they  bestowed  upon  it,  mean- 
ing ''River  of  Gold.''  All  the  workings  Mr.  Grey 
found  were  shallow :  below  a  certain  depth  the  water 
encountered  was  too  severe  a  problem  for  his  predeces- 
sors. The  fact  that  rich  ore  has  been  found  just  below 
the  level  of  the  old  diggings  indicates  that  it  was  not  for 
lack  of  gold  in  the  vein  that  they  were  not  pushed 
deeper.  The  Mejor  Mine  and  the  Casualidad  adjoin  the 
Santiago  claim. 

The  country  around  about  these  mines,  and  especially 
that  lying  between  them  and  Holguin  itself,  seems  very 
barren.  The  hills  north  of  that  city  and  the  ridges 
extending  to  the  mines,  are  nude  of  trees ;  grass  grows 
scant  over  their  pebbly,  discolored  soil.  Only  immedi- 
ately along  the  water  courses  is  there  generous  growth. 

On  the  contrary,  the  country  out  towards  Aguas 
Claras  is  cloaked  under  vegetation.  We  made  into  it  a 
wonderful  ride,  fifteen  miles  or  so,  due  north  from 
Pedernales.     What  seemed  to  be  merely  a  bridle  path, 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  439 

across  the  gravelly  skirts  of  hills  and  hardly  more  desir- 
able savanna,  became  a  well-graded  road  over  a  ridge 
from  which  we  descended  into  fertile  and  cultivated 
country,  —  that  is,  as  country  goes  in  Cuba,  —  for 
there  were  patches  of  sugar  cane,  corn,  and  plantains 
flourishing  wherever  man  had  taken  time  and  trouble 
to  plant  a  crop.  We  rode  among  abrupt  and  irregular 
hills,  following  now  trails  and  now  roads,  by  rather  pros- 
perous places  and  through  wilderness,  sighting  once  or 
twice  the  ruins  of  blockhouses,  by  way  of  which,  in  war 
times,  conmaunication  was  maintained  between  Holguin 
and  its  port,  that  same  Gibara  I  have  previously  de- 
scribed. At  a  point  about  midway  between  these 
towns  we  came  upon  the  camp  established  by  a  Mr. 
James  Allan,  experienced  on  the  Rand,  who  has 
denounced  here  certain  claims  he  considers  similar  in 
formation  (banket  reefs)  and  in  quality  to  the  best  of 
the  renowned  Transvaal.  He  has  interested  a  London 
firm,  a  representative  of  which  is  now  boring.  Here, 
too,  Mr.  Allan  found  old  workings,  but  natives  of  the 
vicinity  have  no  recollection  as  to  who  made  them, 
or  what  (gold,  copper,  or  iron)  they  sought. 

Those  who  know  Cuba  best  flout  the  idea  that  there 
can  be  here  gold  veins  or  deposits  of  any  great  value. 
Ten  years  ago  they  laughed,  in  similar  tone,  at  mention 
QLiron,in  quantity  or  quality  to  count ;  yeLtorday  Cuba 
is  a  very  large  factor  in  all  calculations  concerning  the 
world's  supply  of  this  necessary  metal.  The  history  of 
her  great  deposits,  long  known,  as  the  fact  that  there  is 
gold  at  Holguin  has  been  known,  and  long  contemp- 
tuously overlooked,  as  gold  claims  there  have  been,  ought 
to  make  skeptics  a  little  more  reticent  than  they  are. 

I  spent  pleasant  days  among  the  Canadian  and  Amer- 
ican settlers  in  the  vicinity  of  Holguin.     I  made  my 


440  CUBA 

home,  for  a  time,  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Angus  Campbell  at 
Guirabo.  Their  house  stands  just  where,  some  three 
miles  south  of  the  town,  the  savanna  lands  give  way  to 
fertile  country  covered  with  the  forest,  growth  indicative 
of  good  soil.  Upon  it  bamboos,  mangoes,  and  mamoncillo 
trees  cast  grateful  shade ;  there  is  a  little  stream  close 
by  and  a  spring  which  supplies  sweet  pure  water.  Mr. 
Campbell  is  the  resident  manager  for  a  company 
which  owns  210  acres  of  land,  of  which  70  acres 
are  set  to  citrus  fruits.  Beyond  Guirabo  are  the 
settlers  who  constitute  the  colony  of  Pedernales.  They 
are,  in  the  majority,  Canadians  who  bought  of  a  com- 
pany that  placed  this  land  upon  the  market  eight  years 
ago.  They  are  engaged  primarily  in  citrus  fruit  cul- 
ture, but  have  lately  of  necessity  turned  their  attention 
also  to  plantains,  corn,  and  especially  to  hog  raising. 
They  are  a  pleasant  community  of  hard-working  people. 
Their  homes  are  all  humble ;  with  two  exceptions  they 
are  ^^ shacks''  (bohios),  into  which,  however,  comforts 
have  been  introduced  according  the  the  taste  and  indus- 
try of  the  occupants.  There  are  ^^ shacks''  with  dirt 
floors  ;  there  are  also  other  ^^  shacks  "  in  which  good  fur- 
niture is  not  out  of  its  proper  setting.  In  one  of  these 
I  saw  a  piano,  and  here  from  the  sideboard,  dustless  and 
dainty  with  embroidered  doilies,  delicious  orange  wine 
was  served  us  by  the  frail  and  faithful  hands  that  made 
it.  Pedernales  is  struggling  forward  against  disad- 
vantages. At  first,  against  lack  of  transportation 
facilities,  later  supplied  by  the  railroad  which,  building 
into  Holguin  in  1906,  has  placed  these  groves  in  com- 
munication with  Antilla  (port  of  export)  via  Cacocum. 
Later,  against  tragic  misfortune,  —  the  local  head  of  the 
colonization  company  was  murdered,  and  his  death  so 
paralyzed  the  company  in  which  he  was  an  active  part- 


COLONIES    OF    OEIENTE  441 

ner  that  it  has  done  nothing  for  the  colony  since.  Next, 
against  errors  in  selection  of  varieties  of  fruit  to  grow. 
Shipments  made  demonstrate  that  it  is  hardly  profitable 
to  export  either  oranges  or  lemons,  which  together  are 
more  than  50  per  cent  of  the  groves  as  set ;  returns  on 
the  grape  fruit  are,  on  the  other  hand,  satisfactory,  espe- 
cially when  it  is  sent  to  Canada.  And,  finally,  against 
the  very  virtues  of  the  soil  on  which  they  are  located : 
it  produces  unwelcome  vegetation  and  insect  pests  in 
proportion  to  its  own  good  qualities.  These  difficulties 
the  settlers  master  by  dint  of  unwearying  and  unin- 
terrupted hard  work.  Under  adversity  their  own 
sterling  characteristics  have  developed ;  in  no  colony 
in  Cuba  have  individuals  and  the  aggregate  seemed  to 
me  to  average  higher  than  here. 

Yetitwas  atTedernales  I  saw  what  I  remember  as  the 
saddest  sight  I Ve  found  in  any  colony, —  not  forgetting, 
either,  the  solitary  women  IVe  come  upon  here  and 
there,  battling  alone  ;  nor  the  men,  some  of  whom  have 
provided  well,  whose  wives  will  not  remain  with  them  in 
Cuba ;  nor  the  houses  with  children  in  them  where  I 
suspected  there  was  hunger  too ;  nor  yet  those  others 
where  there  was  fault-finding,  bickering,  and  mutual 
recriminations  in  families  breaking  under  strain.  It 
began  to  rain  as  we  arrived  before  the  house  we  were 
to  visit,  and  my  entrance  there  was  abrupt,  for  I  dis- 
mounted and  ran  to  avoid  a  drenching.  It  was  a  native- 
built  hut,  —  with  thatched  roof  and  walls,  and  a  dirt 
floor  laid,  it  seems  to  me,  in  part  with  flat  stones. 
There  were  some  pieces  of  American  furniture,  disabled 
and  weather-worn.  At  one  end  was  a  cook  stove, 
littered,  like  a  table  near  it,  with  dirty  pots  and  pans. 
As  I  sat  watching,  a  dog  thrust  his  muzzle  into  a  kettle 
rolling  upon  the  floor,  and  hcked  it  hungrily.     I  do  not 


442  CUBA 

recall  other  details  of  the  interior  of  that  ^ '  shack  ^^ 
except  to  remember  that  inground  dirt  and  despairing 
disorder  were  everywhere.  The  woman  who  resides 
there  wore  a  thin  white  shirt  waist,  and  her  undergar- 
ments beneath  it  had  slipped  low,  leaving  handsome 
bust  and  rounded  arms  exposed  through  the  muslin 
and  its  openwork.  She  was  uncorseted,  and  embar- 
rassed because  of  it.  She  apologized  for  receiving  us  in 
the  kitchen  ;  it  was  also  the  dining  room,  and  a  stretcher 
cot  leaned,  folded,  against  one  wall.  She  explained  that 
since  her  husband  removed  the  lean-to  kitchen  of 
^Hhe  other  house,^^  they  had  really  lived  here.  ^^The 
other  house''  was  a  small  residence,  erected  near  by  on 
the  usual  American  plan ;  it  appeared  to  be  closed  up, 
and  its  abandonment  seemed  to  me  symbolical.  He  had 
used  the  lumber  of  the  demolished  kitchen  to  build  a 
cockpit,  even  before  chicken  fighting  was  allowed  by 
law ;  admission  to  the  ring  was  charged,  and  he  prof- 
ited by  that,  and,  probably,  also  by  the  betting.  He 
had  not,  as  he  promised,  ever  added  another  kitchen  to 
^Hhe  other  house.''  He  had,  however,  recently  erected 
a  ^^baile  house."  It  was  a  planed  plank  floor,  with  a 
thatched  roof  held  above  it  on  uprights ;  there  were 
no  walls,  but  from  the  supporting  posts  dried  palm 
leaves  bent,  supplying  decoration  and  a  satisfying  sug- 
gestion of  walls.  Here  public  dances  were  held.  Na- 
tives who  were  not  welcomed  to  particular  clubs  in 
Holguin,  and  the  country  people,  patronized  it.  Ameri- 
can and  Canadian  neighbors  who  had  come  also  at 
first  were  falling  off,  —  especially  the  women  among 
them.  At  the  dances  the  men  paid  admission.  There 
was,  by  way  of  music,  an  accordion  sometimes ;  or  the 
men  whistled  and  clapped  tunes  and  time.  There  was 
a  bar,  and  her  husband  sold  beer  and  soft  drinks.     He 


COLONIES    OF    OEIENTE  443 

had  once  had  crops  planted,  but  these  he  abandoned. 
They  were  tired,  she  said,  of  getting  up  early  and  work- 
ing long  and  hard  for  little  or  no  return.  ^^And  so,'' 
she  concluded,  with  an  upward  lift  of  her  head  and  a 
bright  defiance  in  her  full  clear  eyes,  ^^we  have  decided 
to  have  just  a  good,  good  time.''  She  held  a  chubby 
baby  girl  in  her  arms  as  she  said  it.  At  this  moment 
her  eldest,  a  slim  active  mis3  of  seven  or  eight,  ran  in 
and  stood  regarding  me,  squeezing  the  mud  on  the 
floor  by  the  door  through  her  bare  brown  toes.  The 
dog,  licking  the  kettle,  attracted  her  attention  to  him- 
self with  an  extra  loud  lap,  and  she  chased  him  and 
the  chickens  out  into  the  rain,  with  a  shout.  Some- 
thing of  the  mother's  bravado  vanished  as  she  looked 
from  the  little  girl  to  me  :  ' '  We  want  to  send  her  home^ ' ' 
she  said,  almost  brokenly,  ^^home  —  to  school."       V^^^^^ 

Whenever  I  hear  Cubans  declaim  concerning  all 
the  profits  we  ^^of  the  North"  have  had  of  Cuba,  there 
arises  before  my  eyes  a  picture,  and  I  know  that  we 
have  paid  for  what  we  got  and  must  continue  to  pay 
for  what  we  get,  in  exchange  dearer  to  us  than  minted 
gold.  I  see  that  woman  at  Pedernales,  half-clad, 
unshod,  —  in  the  very  beauty  and  prime  of  mother- 
hood, —  clasping  her  baby  to  her  breast  as  she  an- 
nounced her  solution  of  problems  beyond  her  strength. 
I  know  that  when  her  husband  bought  his  one  hundred 
acres  she  shared  his  hopes ;  when  he  planted  his  crops 
she  labored  with  him.  When  he  abandoned  these, 
she  accepted  his  decision.  With  a  lantern  at  night 
she  has  looked  for  him,  and  lifted  him  from  the  ditch 
where  he  had  fallen  on  his  way  back  from  town.  When 
a  friend  trusted  him  with  a  supply  of  beer  and  coca-cola 
to  sell  at  his  ^^baile  house,"  she  drank  with  him  as  he 
drank,   and  helped  sell  what  was  left  over  the  bar. 


444  CUBA 

Circumstances  were  deaf  to  her  protests,  unmoved  by 
her  struggles;  they  ground  her  down  and  she  ceased 
to  resist.  She  held  one  baby  to  her  heart,  and  prayed, 
for  the  other  one,  far  and  lasting  separation  from 
what  she  must  accept,  in  her  dirt  and  desolation,  — 
^'just  a  good,  good  time/' 

In  contrast,  it  is  near  Holguin  that  I  have  on  two 
occasions  visited  in  the  home  which  seems  to  me  the 
thriftiest  of  all  I  know.  It,  too,  is  a  bohio,  the  heavy 
supporting  posts  and  roof  poles  of  which  were  put  in 
place  perhaps  fifty  years  ago  :  they  are  hard  wood  and 
bound  where  they  belong  with  withes,  more  lasting 
than  nails.  The  thatch  is  of  palm  leaves,  and  it  is 
cool,  serviceable,  and  picturesque.  Perhaps  it  does 
shelter  rats,  for  there  are  times  when  the  spotless  pussy 
cat  sits  upon  the  rafters  and  gazes  longingly  upward 
into  the  leaves  where  the  slightest  rustling  sounds. 
Mr.  Towns  put  in  his  own  walls  and  floor  and  parti- 
tions of  board.  Inside,  Mrs.  Towns  and  her  mother 
have  done  the  rest.  No  listing  of  details  can  give 
the  general  impression  of  that  home,  which  all  who 
have  entered  into  it  cherish  long  in  their  recollection. 
There  is  cut  glass  on  the  improvised  sideboard,  and  it 
gleams  in  the  soft  light  of  the  lamp.  There  are  books 
and  periodicals  from  three  quarters  of  the  globe  (Ameri- 
can, English,  and  French)  on  the  shelves  and  upon  the 
tables.  There  are  easy  chairs.  The  kitchen  is  a 
triumph  !  The  stove  is  oil  cans  with  charcoal  braziers 
fitted  into  their  upper  ends.  The  cupboards  are  swing- 
ing boxes.  Kitchen  utensils  hang,  each  in  its  place, 
upon  the  walls,  or  they  lie  in  proper  order  upon  shelves. 
The  whole  establishment  has  the  air  of  fitting  the  lives 
of  cultured  and  industrious  people.  There  is  nothing 
useless  under  that  roof.     Twice  I  have  arrived  there 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  445 

as  a  shipwrecked  sailor  arrives  on  land  or  a  lost  desert 
traveler  stumbles  into  an  oasis,  —  exhausted  and  sick, 
hot  and  hungry.  Recalling  my  reception  I  can't  say 
which  revived  me  quickest,  —  the  bouquet  of  roses 
upon  the  dining  table,  or  the  generous  dish  of  fried 
peanuts  (served  at  dinner  like  a  delicious  vegetable), 
the  hot  bath,  in  a  tremendous  wash  pan,  poured  for  me 
in  the  bedroom,  or  the  gentle  faces  and  neat  attire  of 
the  two  ladies  who  make  that  lonely  spot  ''sweet  home,'' 
especially  to  a  son  who  has  gone  out  of  it,  to  a  col- 
lege in  ''the  States."  Outside,  Mr.  Towns'  handiwork 
blooms  in  the  garden,  which  is  an  experimental  plot. 
He  is  by  calling  a  nurseryman,  and  in  his  yard  speci- 
mens of  ornamentals,  creepers,  flowering  shrubs,  and 
plants  of  every  variety  thrive,  in  a  glorious  riot  of 
perfume  and  color.  Up  the  road  is  the  nursery  proper 
of  citrus  fruit  trees.  There  are  thirty-two  acres  of 
orchard,  three  fourths  of  which  is  grape  fruit.  I  have 
lately  heard  that  he  plans  to  remove  his  home  and  his 
business  from  Mayabe  to  a  place  better  situated  with 
regard  to  transportation.  At  present  he  ships  from 
Gibara,  which  is  thirty  miles  distant  on  the  north  sea 
shore.  I  cannot  imagine  Mayabe  deserted,  or  in  the 
hands  of  other  owners.  In  my  memory  the  pink 
coralillo  creeper  will  always  swing,  just  so,  in  the  wind 
from  the  arbor  beside  the  door  which  shelters  the  filter 
and  the  earthen  tinajon  (water  jar),  and,  at  night,  I 
see  the  house  in  moonlight  so  clear  one  can  still  dis- 
tinguish the  particular  bright  colors  of  the  garden 
flowers,  and  all  the  markings  of  the  house  cat,  dancing 
up  and  down  the  brick  path  to  the  outbuildings,  quite 
alone  except  for  his  shadow  which  frolicked  with  him 
like  a  spirited  partner  in  his  joyous  antics  while  I 
watched. 


446  CUBA 

At  Paso  Estancia  it  is,  I  think,  the  traveler  along  the 
railroad  line  obtains  his  first  view  of  the  Cauto,  largest 
_^  river  in  all  Cuba.  It  takes  its  rise  far  to  the  east  and 
\  south  of  this  country,  but  here  bends  to  the  westward, 
following  the  long  length  of  its  marvelous  valley,  even 
to  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Guacanayabo,  indenting  the 
southern  coast  of  the  islajid  as  part,  really,  of  the  Carib- 
bean Sea. 

This  Cauto  country,  south  of  the  present  main  line, 
is  the  region  the  Cuba  Railroad^s  new  extension  is  just 
opening  up  to  further  settlement.  The  company 
has  almost  completed  construction  of  road  leaving 
the  present  trunk  line  at  Marti,  in  Camaguey  Province, 
for  the  renowned  old  city  of  Bayamo,  thence  continu- 
ing via  Baire  to  Palma  Soriano,  which  is  already  con- 
nected with  the  trunk  line  again  at  San  Luis,  and  there- 
fore with  Santiago  de  Cuba,  twenty  miles  beyond  this 
junction.  The  new  road  between  Bayamo  and  its  port, 
Manzanillo,  part  of  the  general  extension,  is  already  in 
operation.  There  is  no  question  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  know  the  island  but  what  all  this  district,  now  for 
the  first  time  made  easy  of  approach,  is  the  very  richest 
within  the  confines  of  Cuba. 

Earliest  Spanish  colonists  appreciated  it,  and  Bayamo 
was  among  their  seven  original  settlements.  It  lies 
in  the  Bayamo  Valley,  on  lands  which  are  fertile, 
watered  by  clear  streams  pouring  off  the  Sierra  Maestra, 
well  drained,  and  now  supplied  with  the  one  advan- 
tage, lack  of  which  has  heretofore  prevented  proper 
exploitation  by  capital  and  industry  employing  modern 
methods :  that  is,  means  of  communication  with  the 
rest  of  Cuba  and  the  world  outside.  Under  the  recent 
American  Provisional  Administration  of  the  Republic 
it  was  decided  to  furnish  the  region  with  its  first  wagon 


Photograpn  by  American  Photo  company 

Bayamo-Manzanillo  Highway 

The  Old  Bridge,  photographed  Nov.  20,  1907 


Photograph  by  American  Photo  Company 

Bayamo-Manzanillo  Highway 

The  New  Bridge,  photographed  Dec.  29,  1908 


Flioioiimpk  bu  Aiittruaic  I'huio  (  u/npany 

Hand-shaped  Timbers  of  Valuable  Hardwoods  used  for  Bridge- 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE       '  447 

road,  that  one  which  was  at  least  partially  built  between 
Manzanillo  and  Bayamo  (before  complications  halted 
the  good  work)  by  an  American  contractor  through  a 
district  where  cart  roads,  consisting  of  a  succession  of 
bog  holes,  had  been  notorious  for  centuries  as  the  very 
worst  to  be  encountered  between  Maysi  and  San 
Anton'.  They  were  impassable  in  the  rainy  season 
even  for  oxcarts  dragged  by  a  dozen  yokes;  both 
vehicles  and  animals  have  sunk  beyond  extrication  there, 
in  the  mire.  There  were  places  on  flat  lands  near  the 
coast  where  the  roadmakers  had  to  lay  foundations  for  • 
their  gravel  highway. 

Bayamo  (present  population,  4102)  was,  prior  to  the 
Ten  Years'  War,  reckoned  the  richest  city  in  Cuba. 
It  bore  the  brunt  of  that  fierce  struggle,  in  the  course  of 
which  many  of  its  patriotic  people  wrecked  their  for- 
tunes, sometimes  destroying  their  own  plantations  and 
homesteads  rather  than  permit  the  Spanish  to  occupy 
them.  Not  even  in  peace  after  the  inauguration  of 
the  republic  did  it  revive  to  any  degree,  until  the  com- 
mencement of  actual  work  on  the  railroad.  The  open- 
ing of  the  line  between  the  city  and  Manzanillo  has 
given  further  impetus  to  development  and  prosperity, 
which,  because  of  the  natural  advantages  with  which  it 
is  endowed,  cannot  do  less  than  restore  the  town,  and 
all  its  jurisdiction,  to  the  important  place  it  formerly 
occupied. 

Beyond  Bayamo,  on  the  way  to  Palma  Soriano,  the 
railway  passes  through  Baire,  like  Bayamo  renowned 
for  valor,  since  here  in  1895  began  the  revolution  against 
Spain  that  culminated  in  American  interference  and 
the  present  state  of  affairs.  Baire  is  in  the  Contra- 
maestre  Valley.  This  valley,  —  beautified  with  palm 
trees,  its  water  courses  feathered  with  wild  bamboo, 


448  CUBA 

ridged  with  minor  hills  on  slopes  of  which  hang  fields 
of  corn,  coffee,  cacao,  yuca,  and  plantains,  —  is  in- 
closed by  towering  mountains  which  furnish  it  with 
never-failing  streams,  and  add,  as  well,  a  final  touch 
of  grandeur  to  enhance  the  delicate  loveliness  of  its 
details.  In  these  same  mountains  there  are  mineral 
deposits  (manganese,  iron,  and,  probably,  copper). 

The  Palma  Soriano  district  is  famous  for  its  coffee. 
The  plantations  are  primitive  in  their  arrangement 
and  cultivation ;  every  process  observed  until  the  prod- 
uct is  brought  to  town  for  its  first  sale  is  antiquated. 
Yet  profits  satisfy  native  growers,  —  especially  those 
who  have  large  families,  each  member  of  which,  to  the 
smallest,  can  assist  in  the  work.  Cacao  is  grown  hap- 
hazard among  the  coffee  trees.  According  to  prevail- 
ing prices  the  grower  favors  now  one  and  now  the  other. 
Corn  produces  regularly  its  two  crops  a  year ;  they 
plant  the  rows  wide  apart  so  that  as  one  crop  matures 
the  other  may  have  room  to  arise  in  the  open  spaces. 
The  vicinity  exports  starch,  produced  from  yuca  on 
little  estates  by  aboriginal  methods. 

We  were  a  day  or  so  in  Palma  Soriano,  and  no  town 
in  Cuba  has  seemed  to  me  more  hopeless,  more  horrible. 
The  streets  were  alleys  of  mud.  We  were  hurtled 
through  them  in  a  hotel  carryall  after  sore-backed 
and  suffering  horses,  beaten  by  an  unintelligent  native 
driver,  who,  when  we  asked  him  if  it  would  not  be  good 
business  policy  to  cure  the  animals  and  feed  them 
so  they  might  live  longer,  laid  on  a  few  extra  whacks 
and  said  he  thought  it  cheaper  to  use  ^em  up  and  get 
others.  The  people  in  the  huts  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town  lived  in  a  manner  Digger  Indians  would  improve 
upon.  The  hotel  was  to  us  appalling,  though  we  appre- 
ciated the  owner's  willingness  to  do  his  best  for  us  and 


I'hohxirnpli  hij  Anil  riaiii  Photo  ( 'ompony 

Primitive  Coffee  Mill 

Mortar  hewn  from  a  solid  hardwood  log  ;  pestle  a  hardwood  pole 


tl 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  449 

make  us  comfortable  as  he  could.  We  learned  that 
there  was  an  American  missionary  in  the  town,  and  we 
found  her  on  an  errand  in  a  dry  goods  store.  We  asked 
her  to  give  us  accommodations.  Her  welcome  was  far 
from  cordial.  She  assured  us  she  was  not  running  either 
a  boarding  or  a  lodging  house,  in  her  little  home,  on  a 
road  leading  out  of  town.  My  mother  retreated  in 
dismay  at  her  attitude,  but  I,  cheered  on  by  the  aspect 
of  the  quarters  in  which  we  must  sleep  unless  I  suc- 
ceeded, determined  to  compel  a  thaw,  and  did  manage 
to  break  the  ice.  We  were,  although  it  crowded  Miss 
Purdy  and  the  half-sick  woman  and  two  children  she 
had  already  accommodated,  given  cots  in  the  best  room 
of  her  incompletely  furnished  house,  and  placed  at  her 
clean  table,  upon  which  everything  served  was  the  best 
available.  Before  we  left  we  came  to  hold  that  noble 
woman  in  sincere  esteem,  despite  the  fact  that  we  could 
not  sympathize  with  her  efforts  to  save  the  souls  of  the 
natives  of  Palma  Soriano.  We  went  so  far  as  to  ad- 
vise her  to  teach  them,  instead,  if  she  could,  to  wash 
their  bodies  and  feed  their  young ;  it  was  our  impres- 
sion that,  this  done,  what  souls  they  may  have  could  be 
relied  upon  to  take  care  of  themselves.  When  we  saw 
that  she  took  our  remarks  as  mockery  we  ceased  to 
make  them.  Perhaps  the  Judge  above  sees  it  other- 
wise, but  I  declare  that  it  seemed  to  me  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  this  one  woman  would  outweigh  in  fair 
scales  the  fate,  both  here  and  hereafter,  of  that  entire 
community  to  which,  cheerfully,  she  made  their 
sacrifice. 

From  Palma  Soriano,  in  company  with  a  Mr.  Rol- 
ston,  detailed,  to  his  very  evident  embarrassment,  to  be 
my  escort,  I  rode  out  for  some  fifteen  miles  over  the 
railroad  work.     I  saw  where  grading  was  already  com- 

2g 


450  CUBA 

plete,  and  where  it  was  in  progress.  I  saw  gangs  of 
stout  Gallegos  (Galicians)  laboring  their  best,  and 
learned  that  they  work  on  contract,  which  inspires  them 
to  keep  at  it  from  daybreak  to  dark,  and  late  into  moon- 
light nights.  I  saw  groups  of  Jamaican  negroes  toiling 
to  equal  their  pace,  and  I  thought,  later,  when  I  met 
the  Norwegian  engineer  in  charge  of  all  this,  how  odd 
his  intensely  blue  eyes,  ruddy  skin,  and  fair  hair  — 
especially  if  set  off,  as  they  were  when  I  saw  him,  by 
white  linen  and  a  green-lined  helmet  —  must  look  to  all 
his  swarthy,  sweating  crew.  No  ^^ foreign  devil'' could 
offer  greater  contrast  to  a  Chinaman  than  he  to  them. 
We  saw  a  protesting  mule  jerked  down  a  twenty-foot 
embankment  because  an  unskilled  driver  backed  him 
too  far  with  a  loaded  cart ;  we  observed  how  he  arose 
from  between  the  broken  shafts  of  the  cart  and  the 
loosened  harness,  shook  himself  free  of  the  debris  and 
dirt,  and  stood  frowning  upon  the  man  who  had  occa- 
sioned his  discomfiture.  Beyond  the  scene  of  his 
mishap  there  was  no  grading.  In  the  clearing  in  the 
forest  ahead  which  marked  the  right-o'-way  one  man 
was  digging  post  holes  and  others  were  shaping  ties. 
We  plunged  into  the  uncut  jungle  beyond  even  this, 
and,  after  some  miles'  riding  in  delightful  wilderness, 
came  upon  American  surveyors  and  their  party. 
They  were  at  the  moment  squeezing  the  good  out  of  a 
native  bee's  nest  they  had  found  in  a  hollow  log.  The 
honey  was  thin  and  dirty,  as  it  ran  from  the  comb  into 
a  bottle  we  held  for  our  share ;  at  luncheon  we  found 
its  flavor  wild,  and,  to  me,  the  more  inviting  because  of 
the  tang.  The  bees  buzzed  unhappily  about  their 
ruined  nest,  helpless  to  defend  it,  because  Cuban  bees 
have  no  sting ! 

We  found  a  camp  by  noontime,  —  a  cluster  of  three 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  451 

or  four  tents,  in  one  of  which  an  American  woman 
(the  wife  of  one  of  the  men  we  had  passed)  made  her- 
self and  a  bouncing  baby  daughter  comfortable  as 
though  she  were  picnicking.  We  had  a  good  dinner  in 
the  mess  tent,  and  returned  to  town  by  a  road  which  led 
us  through  native  settlements,  by  pastures  and  some 
small  cultivated  fields,  along  a  high  ridge  which  over- 
looked a  country  beautiful  beyond  any  words  to  tell. 
I  saw  it  that  afternoon  in  sunshine,  and  then  dimly, 
through  driving  rain ;  and  again,  refreshed,  as  the 
clouds  passed  by,  drifting  over  the  lowlands  and  up 
the  distant  mountain  slopes  in  wreaths  and  streamers 
of  mist.  Toward  sunset  we  descended  to  the  bed  of 
the  purling  Cauto  again,  trickling  at  that  season  among 
the  rocks  of  the  bottom  it  shows  at  lowest  water. 
But  that  very  day  the  men  at  work  on  a  great  cement 
bridge  they  were  throwing  up  with  the  quickness  of 
magic,  to  span  it,  had  removed  all  their  machines  and 
materials  to  the  topmost  bank,  in  anticipation  of  a 
flood.  When  I  inquired  why  they  strung  a  bridge  at 
such  a  seemingly  needless  height  as  that  one  (grade 
ninety-six  feet  above  low  water),  they  told  me  how  in  the 
rainy  season  this  river  becomes  a  raging  torrent  (as 
the  nature  of  its  banks  indicates),  down  which  whole 
trees  are  hurled  singly  and  in  jams.  They  told  me,  too, 
of  the  famous  ^Hwenty  years'  high  water,  ^'  and  how 
carefully  the  bridges  and  culverts  and  all  the  new  rail- 
road tracks  are  being  prepared  to  withstand  even  that. 
It  is  the  Cauto  and  its  moods  which  constitute  the 
only  drawBacks  1  could  discover  to  the  settlement  of 
Paso  Estancia  on  the  main  line.  There  is  as  yet  no 
station  here,  and  it  was  to  a  grass-grown  platform  that 
I  dropped  from  the  train  in  front  of  a  native  hut  or  so, 
before  one  of  which,  however,  there  stood  to  welcome 


^H. 


452  CUBA 

me  an  American  girl  with  her  own  horse  and  one  for 
me.  When  the  train  had  gone,  we  followed  the  road 
to  the  river  and  forded  readily,  climbing  again  from 
its  deep  bed  to  the  grove  and  the  plantation  house  on 
the  hill  upon  the  other  side. 

The  history  of  Paso  Estancia,  as  well  as  its  present, 
is  instructive.  The  company  which  owns  this  land 
bought  it  in  1903,  and  thought  that  it  had  at  the  same 
time  acquired  land  across  the  river.  This  land,  north 
of  the  Cauto,  was  lost  in  some  manner  or  other  in  the 
course  of  a  later  lawsuit,  over  titles,  I  believe,  which 
did  not,  however,  impair  the  company's  possession  of 
the  tract  south  of  the  river.  It  did,  nevertheless, 
prevent  the  platting  and  development  of  a  town  imme- 
diately about  the  railroad  station,  as  had  been  intended. 
Various  plans  have  been  entertained  from  time  to  time 
concerning  the  development  of  the  tract.  It  was  in- 
tended originally  to  fetch  families  from  Germany  to 
colonize  it ;  only  the  stringent  anti-emigration  laws  en- 
forced in  that  empire  prevented  success.  It  was  later 
proposed  to  establish  a  sweet  corn  canning  factory  here  ; 
it  was  discovered  opportunely  that  sweet  corn  cannot  be 
grown  in  Cuba.  Finally,  the  company  determined  to 
experiment  and  to  demonstrate  to  its  own  satisfaction 
exactly  what  can  be  accomplished  under  conditions  pre- 
vailing at  Paso  Estancia  before  urging  anybody  else  to 
invest.  Accordingly,  in  1905,  one  hundred  fifty  citrus 
fruit  trees  were  set  out  on  a  pleasant  hillside,  in  the 
townsite  laid  out,  after  the  loss  of  the  northern  tract,  on 
the  south  bank  of  the  Cauto  opposite  the  railway  sta- 
tion. These  trees  were  fifteen  different  varieties. 
Later,  one  hundred  fifty  more  trees  were  purchased  and 
planted.  From  that  time  on  the  company  propagated 
its  own  nursery,  extending  the  grove  at  reduced  cost, 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  453 

until  now  it  covers  forty-five  acres,  of  which  seven  or 
eight  are  grape  fruit,  three  or  four  are  lemons,  and  the 
rest,  oranges  of  many  kinds.  The  grove  was  set  in 
unplowed  land,  —  the  underbush  had  been  macheted 
out,  the  trees  felled,  and  the  whole  burned  over.  The 
ground  was  staked  off  and  the  trees  dropped  into  the 
holes  prepared.  Cultivation  followed  later.  No  irri- 
gation was  found  necessary,  nor  has  any  fertilizer  been 
applied.  I  found  the  older  section  of  the  grove  in 
bearing.  The  grape  fruit  trees  were  bent  under  their 
burdens  of  smooth-skinned,  luscious  clusters.  The 
navels  had  attained  exceptional  size.  Color,  flavor, 
and  texture  of  all  the  fruit  was  good.  I  sat  under  the 
tawny  tangerine  trees  and  ate  my  fill  in  blissful  appre- 
ciation of  the  fact  that  the  company  is  assuredly  justi- 
fied, now,  in  selling  land  similar  to  this  as  fruit  land. 
Profiting  by  general  experience  elsewhere,  settlers  in 
planting  have  preferred  grape  fruit,  setting  only  enough 
orange  and  lemon  trees  for  their  own  supply.  There 
were  about  seventy-three  acres  out  when  I  was  there, 
last  fall ;  I  presume  there  are  as  many  more  planted 
by  now. 

The  settlers  were,  then,  about  forty  in  number. 
In  nationality,  they  were  Americans,  Canadians,  and 
English.  They  were  for  the  most  part  inexperienced 
in  either  agriculture  or  horticulture,  but  full  of  enthu- 
siasm at  their  prospects.  They  had  made  clearings 
in  the  thick  virgin  forest  and  located  their  little  homes, 
—  zinc-roofed  frames,  usually,  —  on  hillsides,  con- 
veniently near  running  streams  from  which  they 
carried  their  own  water  supply.  They  were  notably 
free  from  insect  pests;  it  was,  I  know,  the  dry  and 
therefore  the  best  season  when  I  was  there,  but  even 
so  I  was  surprised  to  find    mosquitoes,  for  instance, 


454  CUBA 

scarce  even  in  close  proximity  to  the  woods  I  had  found, 
in  the  rainy  season,  to  shelter  them  in  swarms.  As 
secondary  to  citrus  fruits  I  found  that  these  people 
plan  to  raise  vegetables,  corn,  chickens,  coffee,  cacao, 
cattle,  hogs,  native  root  crops  and  plantains.  They 
have,  in  Mr.  Kobler,  an  experienced  adviser,  —  no 
dreamer,  but  a  man  appreciative  of  the  advantage  of 
catering  to  the  immediate,  home  market  while  waiting 
for  crops  intended  for  the  foreign  market  to  mature. 

I  found  accommodations  in  Royal  Palm  Hotel  atPaso 
^siSincia^.a  cement  building  erected  at  the  very  com- 
mencement of  the  colony  from  materials  found  in  the 
Cauto  River  bottom.  The  rooms  were  plastered,  well 
furnished,  and  the  table  set  was  far  above  the  average, 
—  naturally,  —  for,  by  advancing  boldly  into  the 
kitchen  and  adjoining  quarters,  where  I  was  not  invited, 
I  discovered  that  the  cook  works  under  close  and  com- 
petent supervision.  The  outlook  from  the  hotel  is 
beautiful.  Immediately  in  front  is  the  grove,  a  maze 
of  flowers  and  fragrance  at  certain  seasons ;  an  orchard 
of  exquisite  fruit  soon  after.  Below  this,  is  the  Cauto, 
an  opaque  green,  bending  sharply  just  here  so  that  it 
surrounds  the  place  on  three  sides,  and  sends  up  from 
each  direction  a  grateful,  pleasant  murmuring,  in  fair 
weather.  Beyond  the  ford,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  is  the  long  cleared  stretch  through  which  trains 
pass,  whistling  and  panting  from  the  woods,  puffing 
forth  clouds  of  smoke  by  day  and  pillars  of  fire  by 
night,  always  noisy  and  important,  incongruous  details 
in  the  picture  they  invade.  Across  the  river  to  the 
right  is  thick  unconquered  forest,  peopled  with  white- 
boled  trees  of  countless  varieties,  hung  with  long,  snake- 
like roots  and  tendrils  of  vines,  prickly  with  aeroids 
at   every   crotch.     Through   these   only   bridle   paths 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  455 

lead,  between  clearings,  like  the  one  I  noticed  where, 
on  the  very  edge  of  the  treacherous  stream,  an  adven- 
turous veguero  was  tempting  up  a  crop  of  tobacco. 
Nature  never  made  a  lovelier  country  than  this.  Prob- 
able it  seemed  all  the  fairer  to  me  because,  while  I 
looked  it  over,  I  was  comfortable,  —  well  housed,  well 
fed,  and  well  mounted.  The  hotel  at  Paso  Estancia 
is,  in  fact,  hardly  a  hotel  at  all ;  it  is,  rather,  the  mana- 
ger's residence,  where  transients  may  be  accommodated 
and  colonists  are  received  until  they  can  settle  them- 
selves in  their  own  places.  It  is  by  no  means  a  tourist 
resort,  but,  were  any  real  friend  of  mine  to  ask  me 
where  he  and  his  wife  and  the  baby  might  go,  into 
country  Cuba,  and  enjoy  themselves,  I  would  be  able 
to  think  of  no  other  place  of  the  very  many  I  have 
visited  that  I  could  honestly  recommend  to  persons  at 
all  unwilling  to  withstand  discomfort.  I  should  there- 
fore suggest  to  my  friend  that  by  hook  or  crook  he 
obtain  admittance  to  this  cool  and  spacious  concrete 
building  upon  the  hill  at  Paso  Estancia.  I  can  imag- 
ine no  better  spot  in  which  to  make  a  tropical  holiday. 
Back  from  it  there  is  a  road,  and  this  on  horseback  we 
followed  on  a  round  of  the  estates  of  settlers,  and  be- 
yond them  we  rode  to  certain  native  fincas  cultivated 
by  Cuban  squatters.  Here  we  found  the  Perez  home- 
stead occupied  by  the  Perez  clan,  who  there  grow 
coffee,  cacao,  tobacco,  yuca,  plantains,  names,  bananas, 
and  many  other  things  the  identity  of  which  I  have  for- 
gotten, on  a  plot  of  soil  about  the  group  of  bohios  which 
is  their  home.  They  have,  also,  some  seedling  orange 
trees,  about  ten  years  old,  which,  despite  lack  of  cul- 
tivation, are  bearing  a  fruit  we  found  delicious  in  the 
samples  we  pulled  as  we  rode  by.  In  the  forest  there, 
too,  I  gathered  limes,  —  large  and  smooth  and  yellow, 


456  •  CUBA 

—  as  fine  in  their  native  state  as  any  to  be  found  on  the 
fancy  market  of  the  North. 

The  next  station  south  and  east  of  Paso  Estancia  is 
Bayate.  Here,  now,  is  a  colony  which  is  adapting  itself 
to  Cuba  instead  of  endeavoring,  as  others  do,  to  adapt 
Cuba  to  imported  notions  of  what  this  country  ought 
to  be.  Situated  in  the  heart  of  what  is,  by  very  many, 
considered  the  best  cane  province  in  the  republic,  its 
settlers  have,  logically,  determined  to  make  the  grow- 
ing of  sugar  cane  their  principal  occupation.  They 
.  had,  when  I  was  there,  four  hundred  and  seventy-three 
acres  planted.  They  found  their  market  for  it  at 
Auza  mill,  twelve  miles  down  the  railroad,  which  paid 
them  62  per  cent  in  sugar  on  weight  delivered  there. 
They  are  not  entirely  dependent  on  Auza;  there  are 
other  mills  within  reach.  The  skeleton  of  a  new  mill 
is  up  at  Palmarito,  close  at  hand,  and  it  is  the  in- 
tention ultimately  to  convert  all  this  country  into 
cane  fields  to  feed  it. 

There  is  a  hotel  at  Bayate,  built  of  cedar  and  mahog- 
any, with  a  pleasant  veranda  all  around  it ;  it  is  painted 
on  the  outside  to  preserve  it  from  the  weather  and 
adequately  furnished  on  the  inside  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  guests.  There  is  a  schoolhouse,  the  property 
of  the  settlers ;  it  is  also  used  for  a  church  if  a  pastor 
happens  to  call.  For  jbhe^  school  the  Cuban  govern- 
ment provides  two  teachers,  one  a  young  Cuban  woman 
who  teaches  in  Spanish,  and  the  other  a  colonist  who 
conducts  brief  classes  in  English.  Originally  there  were 
a  good  many  Cuban  youngsters  in  attendance,  but  they 
have  dropped  out,  until  now  but  three  or  four  appear 
regularly.  The  rest  (from  twenty  to  thirty-seven, 
according  to  the  condition  of  the  roads  they  must 
travel   to   arrive)    are   white-haired,    rosy,    blue-eyed 


COLONIES    OF    OBIENTE  457 

Americans,  who  are  rapidly  acquiring  Spanish  in  addi- 
tion to  the  Enghsh  they  chatter  among  themselves 
and  the  Swedish  they  talk  at  home.  The  settlers  at 
Bayate  are,  with  very  few  exceptions  among  the  one 
hundred  and  eighty  residents,  Swedish-born  American 
citizens.  In  their  attitude  towarcf  the  school  I  found  the 
most  striking  difference  between  them  and  American- 
born  emigrants  to  Cuba.  They  are  willing  that  the 
school  should  be  taught  in  Spanish,  for,  they  argue, 
the  children  learn  something,  no  matter  in  what  lan- 
guage the  instruction  is  conveyed  ;  moreover,  inasmuch 
as  their  parents  do  not  acquire  Spanish  as  readily,  it 
is  convenient  for  the  children  to  be  able  to  act  as  inter- 
preters between  them  and  their  native  neighbors. 
This  is  not  at  all  the  view  taken,  for  instance,  on  the 
Isle  of  Pines,  where  the  colonists  insist  upon  all-Eng- 
lish schools  (or  at  least  on  having  Spanish  taught 
about  as  a  foreign  language  is  taught  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  United  States).  I  inquired  whether  or 
not  there  was  danger  that  the  school  might  not  assist 
the  pupils  to  become  altogether  too  Cubanized.  The 
man  I  asked  denied  it  and  laughed.  Turning  together 
we  looked  at  the  line  of  little  tow-heads  filing  down  the 
railroad  track  to  town,  for  the  noon  meal,  and  I  felt 
that  he  was  right  in  the  confidence  his  quick  ^^Nay, 
nay  !''  implied. 

I  rode  back  and  forth  over  Bayate,  visiting  outlying 
estates.  I  noted  that  many  settlers  own  their  own 
cows,  and  enjoy  the  milk,  and  that  some  of  them  are 
raising  a  few  head  of  cattle.  All  have  their  chickens, 
and  sell  surplus  eggs.  Some,  who  live  at  a  distance, 
among  the  hills,  are  trying  coffee  and  cacao.  I  was 
struck  particularly  by  the  scarcity^of  .draft  animals  on 
the  place,  —  there  were,   if  I  counted  correctly,  but 


458  CUBA 

three  mules.  They  use  Httle  field  equipment,  the  hoe 
being  the  implement  of  leading  importance.  ^I  saw 

■^  citrus  trees,  on  a  well-drained  slope,  doing  well  at 
Bayate.  Their  fruit  was  good,  and  would  have  been 
salable  if  shipped,  but  this  has  not  persuaded  the  colony 
as  a  whole  but  what  sugar  cane  is  the  crop  by  which 
to  abide.  It  is  the  staple  crop  of  this  country  of  their 
second  adoption,  —  it  is  to  Cuba  what  wheat  was  to 
the  northwestern  United  States,  where  they  found  it  the 
best  crop  to  undertake.  In  short,  as  once  they  adapted 
themselves  to  conditions  in  the  sections  of  the  United 
States  to  which  they  originally  removed  from  Sweden, 
now  they  are  adapting  themselves  to  conditions  as  they 
find  them  in  Cuba,  whither  they  are  attracted  from 
that  Northwest  by  the  warm  and  welcoming  climate 
here.  Yet  in  this  flexibility  they  do  not  surrender 
here,  just  as  they  did  not  surrender  there,  any  of  those 
stanch  and  homely  virtues  which  are  their  priceless  in- 
heritance from  the  Mother  Land.  The  gaunt  frame 
homes  on  the  Cauto  hills  are  clean  and  thrifty  as  their 
prototypes  are,  out  on  the  Minnesota  wheat  farms. 
In  the  yards  the  bright-colored  posies  bloom,  a  flame 
of  red  and  yellow  against  the  porches.  A  red  box  border 
outlines  the  path  from  roadway  to  door.  The  wash 
on  the  line,  embroidery-trimmed  petticoats,  men's 
shirts,  and  wee  pinafores,  is  blindingly  white.  And 
the  blond  children  who  troop  down  the  railroad  track 
to  school  are  becomingly  clad  in  starched  and  well- 
ironed  garments ;  gay  ribbons  tie  the  girls'  tight  braids, 
and  the  round  freckled  faces  of  the  boys  are  sufficiently 
scrubbed.  In  brief,  even  in  the  tropics,  where  the 
outcome  shows  in  less  than  a  generation  how  fatal 
failure  is,  the  Swedes  are  proving  admirable  colonizers, 

4^  yielding~to'conditions  where  it  is  wisdom  to  yield,  and 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  459 

maintaining  a  stolid  front  of  opposition  against  other 
conditions  which  they  will,  in  their  own  silent  fashion, 
overcome. 

All  the  land  of  the  Bayate  tract  is,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  forties  and,  perhaps,  some  distant  parcels, 
sold ;  therefore  the  colony  which  backed  it  has  trans- 
ferred its  attention  to  Palmarito  de  Cauto,  the  next 
stop  on  the  main  line  to  the  southeast.  The  name 
means  ^^ Little  Palm  Grove,'^  and  refers,  plainly,  to  the 
royal  palms,  —  accepted  evidence  of  fertility,  —  which 
embellish  the  scenery  in  every  direction.  They  stand, 
tall  and  graceful,  amid  cane  fields  which  are  the  promise 
of  a  sugar  central  here,  some  day.  Six  hundred  acres 
are  already  planted.  There  are,  as  yet,  few  settlers, 
for  the  title  to  this  tract  has  only  just  been  finally 
cleared. 

The  town  of  Palmarito  is  itself  a  squatters^  settle- 
ment, lacking  all  right  to  exist,  but  existing  sturdily 
just  the  same,  to  the  extent  of  thirty  houses  or  there- 
abouts, of  frame,  composition  and  concrete,  built  in 
two  rows  paralleling  the  railroad  tracks,  on  both  sides, 
at  the  point  where  the  trains  make  their  regular  stops. 
There  is,  now,  a  post  office,  stores,  a  colony  house  which 
is  the  hotel,  and  a  stock  corral  in  lieu  of  a  railway 
station. 

Scattered  over  the  tract  (it  comprises  6000  acres)  are 
the  small  country  estates  of  other  squatterSr  most  in- 
teresting among  them  being  that  of  a  Spaniard,  Sr. 
D.  Salvador  Casanova,  who  took  unto  himself  a  cabal- 
leria  (33 1  acres)  in  1903.  It  was  at  that  time  unpopu- 
lated wildwood,  and  appealed  the  more  to  him  on  that 
account,  for  the  war  between  Spain  and  Cuba  was 
recent  history,  and  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Span- 
ish Civil  Guard,  a  body  most  hated  by  Cubans.     To 


460  CUBA 

escape  indignities  to  which  he  was  subjected  because  of 
his  connection  with  that  force,  Casanova,  his  French 
wife,  and  their  three  small  children  ^^  went  to  the  woods, '^ 
as  he  puts  it,  ^^  because  in  the  wilderness  is  the  source 
of  all  wealth.'^  They  picked  out  land  they  liked,  and 
settled  upon  it.  They  could  not,  had  they  attempted, 
have  secured  a  title  in  those  days.  They  have  now 
under  cultivation  some  twenty-three  or  twenty-four 
acres :  the  rest  of  their  caballeria  is  pasture.  All  the 
land  lies  well  within  the  town  site  the  new  company 
which  holds  valid  title  to  it  has  platted ;  the  company 
will,  I  was  told,  out  of  consideration  for  Sr.  Casa- 
nova's unfortunate,  but  by  no  means  unusual,  predica- 
ment, sell  his  own  to  him  cheap. 

This  Spaniard  has  planted  coffee,  cacao,  plantains, 
bananas,  beans,  yucay  names,  malangas,  and  the  borders 
of  his  walks  are  pineapples;  there  are  orange,  anon, 
guanabana,  mango,  and  nispero  trees,  in  bearing,  on 
the  place  ;  there  are  ever-blooming  roses  near  the  house 
in  a  tangled  garden  of  gay-flowered  shrubs  and  vines, 
as  variegated  in  color  as  the  plumage  of  the  parrot  on 
his  ring  by  the  open  door.  The  whole  estate  is  a  maze 
in  which  only  the  experienced  eye  discovers  economy 
and  profitable  combination.  Thirteen  acres  of  the 
coffee,  planted,  as  usual,  along  with  cacao  and  a  scat- 
tering of  other  crops,  are  in  bearing,  and  Casanova  has 
found  them  profitable  enough;  he  anticipates,  how- 
ever, a  better  income  from  the  cacao  trees  when  these 
come  into  full  maturity. 

Some  miles,  by  way  of  a  newly  made  road,  beyond 
Casanova's  place,  we  found  the  one  hundred  acres  an 
American  company  has  just  cleared,  hewing  it  in  the 
shape  of  a  great  rectangle  out  of  the  woods  that  cover 
the  one  thousand  they  have  bought.     Here  ten  thou- 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  461 

sand  grape  fruit  trees  are  set.  On  a  hilltop  overlooking 
this  orchard,  which  is  just  well  started,  the  Americans 
in  charge  have  built  their  home.  They  are  New 
Englanders,  and  one  would  know  it  by  the  simple 
cleverness  with  which  out  of  corn  they  had  not  intended 
to  grow  at  all  they  have  made  a  good  part  of  the 
expense  of  their  grove,  to  date. 

Corn  lands  in  eastern  Cuba  regularly  produce  two 
crops  per  annum;  one  is  harvested  about  October  and 
the  other  about  March.  It  is,  as  I  have  said,  not 
unusual  to  see  two  crops  in  the  same  field  at  one  and 
the  same  time.  Both  are,  however,  infected  even 
beforeJhey„are  gathered  with  weevil,  which  abounds  in 
this  island  wherever  corn  is  grown.  Its  activity  forces 
the  Cuban  countryman  who  has  a  crop  to  sell  it  at 
once,  when  every  other  grower  is  doing  exactly  the 
same  thing ;  that  is,  throwing  his  corn  on  the  market, 
accepting  in  exchange  whatever  the  nearest  corner 
groceryman  will  give  him  in  credit  at  the  store  for  the 
corn,  shelled,  bagged,  and  delivered.  The  groceryman, 
in  his  turn,  hustles  it  through  to  Santiago,  to  Antilla, 
or  wherever  he  can  dispose  of  it  quickly,  without  demur 
at  the  low  prices  which  prevail  at  this  particular 
season.  The  minimum  at  the  close  of  a  crop,  when  all 
hands  are  busy  selling  to  beat  the  weevil,  is  given  in 
different  points  throughout  eastern  Cuba  as  50,  60, 
and  70  cents  a  bushel,  —  the  usual  measure  is  not, 
however,  a  bushel,  but  the  oil  can,  the  bag,  and  the 
barrel,  this  latter  containing  on  an  average  three 
bushels.  Within  a  month  after  the  crop  is  in,  prices 
begin  to  rise.  This  brings  forth  the  better  corn,  which, 
being  freer  from  the  weevil,  keeps  a  few  weeks  without 
extraordinary  care ;  later  appears  the  corn  which  has 
been  stored  in  sealed  tin  cans,  in  large  glass  bottles, 


462  CUBA 

and  in  closed  bins.  Nevertheless,  before  the  second 
crop  is  in,  prices  soar.  Corn  not  infrequently  reaches 
$1.66  a  bushel  in  Santiago  de  Cuba;  on  occasions  it 
has  sold  at  $2.33,  though  this  latter  is  regarded  as  an 
exceptional  price.  Average  prices  in  western  Cuba 
are  higher  than  they  are  in  the  east.  Great  importa- 
tions are  made  from  abroad,  especially  from  the  Argen- 
tine, local  production  falling  far  short  of  meeting  the 
persistent  and  imperative  demand.  To  prevent  the 
destruction  of  corn  by  the  weevil  is  a  comparatively  easy 
task.  Bisulphide  of  carbon  destroys  the  insect  with- 
out at  all  affecting  the  corn.  Thi^  my  friends  the  New 
Englanders  at  Palmarito  discovered  (perhaps  on 
reading  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture's 
statements  to  that  effect)  without  paying  a  few  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  information,  as  a  grain  dealer  in 
Havana  is  said  to  have  done.  They  built  a  small 
double  bin,  and  lined  it  with  concrete.  They  exposed  a 
pound  of  the  liquid  bisulphide  to  the  air  in  each  of  these 
two  bins  before  they  dumped  in  corn,  from  the  top  ;  they 
let  another  pound  seep  through  the  corn  once  it  was 
in,  and  they  had  doors  arranged  in  the  bottom  of  the 
bins  which  enabled  them  to  examine  the  corn  from  time 
to  time,  and  to  get  it  out  in  a  hurry  if  they  saw  need  to 
do  so.  When  I  was  there  last  December,  the  corn  had 
been  in  storage  a  couple  of  months,  and,  although  it  was 
damp  when  put  away,  showed  no  signs  of  fermentation. 
Prices  had  already  more  than  doubled,  but  the  New 
Englanders  were  sitting  tight  and  waiting  for  more. 
I  have  traveled  around  Cuba  a  little,  with  my  eyes 
wide  open  and  notebook  in  hand,  but  I  never  saw  any 
agricultural  or  horticultural  venture  into  which  I 
itched  to  turn  the  very  few  dollars  I  have  saved  from 
describing    the   money-making   propositions    of    other 


COLONIES    OF    ORIENTE  463 

people,  until  I  set  eyes  upon  this  corn  preservation 
project  as  demonstrated  to  be  feasible  at  Palmarito. 
I  even  went  so  far  as  to  make  tentative  inquiries  here 
in  Havana  into  the  chance  of  getting  backing  for  busi- 
ness in  this  line  on  the  smallest  scale  profitable.  The 
first  man  I  approached  assured  me,  though  he  has 
lived  here  for  years,  that  no  corn  is  grown  in  Cuba ; 
he  was  so  in  earnest  that  if  I  hadn^t  ridden  through 
field  after  field  of  it  in  Oriente  he  would  have  convinced 
me,  perhaps.  The  second  one  I  approached  took  the 
matter  under  advisement  only  to  inform  me  with 
horror  in  face  next  day  that  bisulphide  of  carbon 
explodes.  I  lost  patience,  then,  and  have  concluded 
that  to  promote  a  corn-preserving  company  entails 
more  of  an  educational  campaign  than  I  am  willing  to 
attempt.  The  field  is  all  the  New  Englanders'  to  date. 
From  Palmarito  it  is  thirty-one  miles  to  Santiago 
de  Cuba.  One  makes  the  run,  eastward  bound,  in  the 
night,  and  sees  therefore,  unless  the  moon  be  full,  little 
of  the  scenery,  which,  especially  from  Dos  Caminos 
on,  is  charming.  From  Cristo  the  train  speeds  down- 
grade through  the  only  pass  a  railroad  finds  feasible. 
It  winds  among  hills  and  skirts  deep  ravines,  above 
little  country  estates  and  villas  in  gardens.  In  the 
darkness  the  passenger  distinguishes  twinkling  lights, 
and,  once,  a  chalet  brilliantly  illumined  dazzles  him 
unexpectedly.  In  the  sky  above,  if  it  be  cloudy,  he 
notices  a  steady  glow,  reflection  hanging  over  Santiago, 
into  which  the  train  coasts,  downgrade  to  the  very 
depot. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    NIPE   BAY   DISTRICT 

No  traveler  in  Cuba  should  fail  to  visit  Nipe  Bay.  In  Havana, 
Camaguey,  Santiago,  he  sees  the  Cuba  of  yesterday,  picturesque 
and  hoary,  persisting  yet  alongside  the  Cuba  of  to-day,  busy  and 
alert ;  but  at  Nipe  Bay  he  glimpses  the  Cuba  of  to-morrow,  em- 
bodied in  gigantic  enterprises  which  spring  up  the  instant  capital 
touches  with  the  magic  wand  of  industry  the  prolific  possibilities 
with  which  Nature  has  endowed  eastern  Cuba. — ^'  Through  the  Land 
of  Promise.'^ 

On  the  summit  of  the  Piiiales  Mountains  (ahas  the 
Nipe,  ahas  the  Mayari  Range)  on  the  north  shore  of 
Oriente  Province,  at  an  altitude  of  1900  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  neighboring  sea,  there  is  an  hotel,  —  The 
Pines,  —  from  the  veranda  of  which  what  few  guests 
arrive  there  overlook  a  panorama  the  like  of  which 
is  not  elsewhere  in  Cuba,  nor,  probably,  in  all  the 
world. 

The  mountain  ridge  rises  abruptly  from  flat  lands 
about  the  Bay  of  Nipe.  Therefore  from  its  top  the 
view  is  unobstructed  over  all  that  great,  landlocked 
harbor,  beyond  it  to  Banes,  and  even  further;  the 
radius  of  vision  is  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles.  Within 
that  radius,  laid  like  a  colored  map  spread  for  inspec- 
tion, one  sees,  in  Central  Boston,  at  Banes,  the  second 
largest  sugar  mill  in  Cuba,  measured  by  output,  sur- 
rounded by  far-reaching  fields  of  cane  intended  to  feed 
its  gormand  crushers.  One  sees,  in  Antilla,  hardly 
distinguishable,  far  to  the  left,  the  northern  terminus 

464 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  465 

-^f  the  Cuba  Railroad  system,  —  a  port  which  places 
all  this  region  in  communication  with  the  rest  of  Cuba, 
just  as  Munson  liners  plying  between  its  docks  and 
New  York,  and  tramp  steamers  which  tie  up  there, 
arriving  from  everywhere,  maintain  its  relations  with 
the  world  at  large.  At  the  nearer  edge  of  the  bay, 
flat  (as  seen  from  that  height)  and  crossed  with  fire  lines 
till  it  resembles  green  checked  gingham  cloth,  is  Preston, 
the  sister  sugar  estate  to  Boston;  on  a  promontory 
projecting  into  the  water  is  its  mill,  with  a  red-roofed 
town  laid  out  in  neat  squares  all  about  it.  Its  twenty- 
three  thousand  acres  of  cane  cover  the  countryside, 
constituting,  with  the  twenty-five  thousand  acres  at 
Boston,  the  largest  area  of  cane  grown  under  adminis- 
tration in  Cuba.  Closer  still,  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tain range,  is  the  old  town  of  Mayari  in  its  lovely  valley, 
through  which  the  meandering  Mayari  River  comes 
down  to  Nipe  Bay.  The  banks  of  this  stream  constitute 
one  of  the  oldest,  if  not  the  very  oldest,  among  tobacco- 
producing  regions  of  Cuba.  Vegueros  here  were  growing 
a  famous  crop  before  Vuelta  Aba  jo  had  a  name,  or  a 
government,  or  any  legitimate  trade  or  commerce. 
Vegueros  still  grow  a  famous  crop  in  the  little  fields 
laid  like  patchwork  along  the  water's  edge ;  it  is  sold 
especially  to  Germany.  One  observes  that  the  town  of 
Mayari  is  one  long  street,  and  this  is  far  more  attractive 
seen  through  distance  than  near  at  hand.  In  addition 
to  tobacco,  native  farmers  throughout  this  Mayari 
Valley  grow  corn  and  other  indigenous  crops.  There 
are  herds  of  cattle.  There  used  to  be  two  small  sugar 
mills  in  the  valley ;  they  elaborated  between  them  about 
ten  thousand  arrobas  of  sugar  per  season,  —  a  record 
to  contemplate  which  causes  the  modern  mills  of  Boston 
and  Preston  to  shake  with  mirthful  contempt  from 

2h 


466  CUBA 

foundations  to  chimney  tops.  From  The  Pines  one 
overlooks  Saetia,  the  largest  fruit  plantation  in  the 
island ;  the  eye  distinguishes  between  the  dark  green  of 
its  banana  groves  and  the  lighter  green  of  interloping 
cane.  Across  a  narrow  stretch  of  water  from  Saetia, 
to  the  right,  as  one  looks  down  upon  it,  seeing  dimly 
through  a  pall  of  smoke  from  its  nodulizing  plant,  is 
Felton,  a  town  grown  up  around  a  great  electric  power 
house,  a  model  machine  shop  it  operates,  and  the 
nodulizing  plant,  which  is  its  raison  d'etre,  where  the 
iron  ore  is  treated  which  is  brought  down  to  it  over 
inclines  and  by  railroad  from  the  mines  at  Woodfred, 
where  the  hotel  —  The  Pines  —  is  situated. 

In  brief,  as  one  looks  down  from  the  veranda  of  that 
hotel  one  sees,  on  Nipe  and  Banes  bays,  investment 
that  has  been  made  there  within  the  last  twelve  years 
(most  of  it  within  the  last  eight)  to  an  approximate 
total  of  sixty  million  dollars. 

It  is  American  money. 

For  mile  on  mile  without  the  boundaries  of  the  lands 
held  by  five  great  American  companies  (the  United 
Fruit  Company,  the  Nipe  Bay  Company,  the  Dumois- 
Nipe  Company,  the  Spanish- American  Iron  Company, 
the  Cuba  Railroad)  thick  forest  extends,  rarely 
broken  by  any  clearing,  and  passable  only  over  trails 
macheted  through  thick  jungle.  Strange  knotted  ten- 
drils hang  from  the  trees ;  burrs  and  seed  pods  resem- 
bling unpleasant  insects  are  thick  in  the  shrubbery. 
From  hiding  in  majaguas  and  cedars,  or  among  the  foli- 
age of  native  limes  and  wild  orange  trees,  yellow  with 
fruit  in  season,  sleek  black  and  very  handsome  brown 
birds  send  forth  their  curious,  resentful  comment. 
It  is  difficult  to  believe,  in  the  face  of  this  vicious  ap- 
pearance, that  there  is  nothing  desperately  evil  here. 


THE    NIPE    BAY   DISTRICT  467 

There  are  no  dangerous  animals  :  the  wild  dog  and  the 
little  boar  are  more  fearful  of  man  than  he  of  them.  There 
is  no  deadly  vegetation :  personally,  I  have  in  riding 
through  woods  like  these  never  suffered  anything  worse 
than  the  quick  rash  the  ^^  bully  girP^  plant  raises  at 
touch,  or  momentary  detention  on  the  thorns  of  the 
^^wait-a-minute^^  shrub,  but  I  am  told  there  is  a  tree, 
the  guao,  shunned  by  those  who  have  experienced  its 
poisonous  effects.  Certainly,  one  has  naught  to  fear 
from  human  beings,  for  they  are  scarce  indeed  in  all  this 
wilderness,  —  which  is  the  property  of  native  and 
Spanish  owners  who  have  as  yet  attempted.no  develop- 
ment whatsoever. 

We  came  up  by  rail  from  Alto  Cedro,  a  junction  on 
the  Havana-Santiago  main  line,  thirty-one  miles  south 
of  Nipe  Bay.  The  tracks  run  through  woods  so  thick 
the  train  appears  to  thread  a  narrow  aisle;  the  jungle^ 
seems  to  be  with  difficulty  held  back  from  closing  over  \ 
the  rails  like  green  waves  engulfing  metal  ribbons  thrown 
to  them.  Section  houses  have  all  the  appearance  of 
being  about  to  sink  under  an  onrushing  sea  of  vegetation. 
It  must  have  been  a  task  that  tried  endurance  more 
than  skill  to  hew  this  way  through  jungle,  fill  hollows, 
and  steady  the  rails  ;  the  men  who  accomplished  it  see 
nothing  heroic  in  their  work,  nor  can  they  discuss  it. 
They  remember,  it  seems,  only  that  ^4t  rained^'  and 
^Hhe  mosquitoes  were  a  little  troublesome.'^ 

At  Dumois  the  railroad  crosses  the  United  Fruit 
Company's  private  line  to  Banes,  and  here  we  alighted, 
on  the  platform  of  the  only  house,  which  is  all  in  one 
depot,  bar  and  restaurant,  storeroom  and  living  quarters 
of  the  station  master  and  telegrapher.  From  here  we 
rode  to  plantation  headquarters  with  the  manager, 
Mr.  Harty,  who  had  come  to  meet  us  in  a  hansom  cab 


468  CUBA 

of  a  small  steam  engine,  called  a  ciguena.  Our  route, 
between  Dumois  and  Banes,  was  twenty-five  miles  over 
United  Fruit  Company  lands,  in  the  arc  of  a  great  circle. 
It  was  a  glorious  December  day,  and  white  clouds  rode 
high  in  a  clear,  cool  sky.  From  low  hills,  on  one  hand, 
where  the  haze  lay  iridescent  in  hollow  and  on  height, 
to  low  hills,  on  the  other,  no  less  varied  in  their  hues, 
there  were  rank,  green  cane  fields.  A  breeze  that  blew 
played  over  the  top  and  around  the  edges  of  them, 
with  a  pleasant  rustling  sound.  At  one  point  a 
bared  brown  patch  in  a  field  corner  showed  where  the 
guampera  (cane-cutter^s  knife)  had  been  at  work, 
and  a  long  loaded  cane  train,  rattling  past  with  right  of 
way  over  even  the  manager's  special,  indicated  that  the 
all-important  zafra  was  on  in  earnest.  Here  and  there, 
in  the  course  of  the  journey  from  Dumois  to  Banes,  we 
passed  buildings  and  groups  of  buildings,  for  there 
are  several  settlements  within  plantation  limits,  and 
many  railway  stations  (with  flagmen  in  charge)  at  junc- 
tions and  sidings.  The  movement  of  all  traffic  is  regu- 
lated, we  learned,  from  a  central  dispatcher's  office 
at  Banes  by  means  of  a  telephone  system  and  a  black- 
board chart  of  the  estate,  on  which  a  peg  indicates  the 
exact  position  at  the  moment  of  every  wheel  of  stock 
rolling,  as  this  is  reported  by  those  employees  along  the 
route,  who,  as  we  neared,  stood  before  their  stations  and 
waved  signal  flags  to  guide  us  on  our  way. 

At  Tacajo  we  stopped  in  an  orchard  of  citrus  fruit 
trees,  and  the  engineer  jumped  down  from  his  seat  over 
our  heads  to  gather  grape  fruit  we  found,  later,  to  be  of 
very  poor  appearance  but  excellent  flavor  and  good 
texture.  We  learned  that  there  are  perhaps  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  citrus  fruit  tr^  here,  which  have  been  neg- 
lected, as  a  result  of  which  the  fruit  (for  the  trees  are  in 


THE    NIPE    BAY   DISTRICT  469 

plentiful  bearing)  is  not  clean  nor  as  large  in  size  as  it 
might  be.  No  foreign  shipments^^e  being  made,  be- 
cause expenses,  favorable  as  transportation  facilities 
would  appear  to  be  from  this  point,  are  considered 
too  high,  in  comparison  with  prices  the  fruit  would 
bring,  to  make  the  business  remunerative.  There 
is  some  local  sale.  The  grove  was  planted  five  or  six 
years  ago  by  former  owners  of  all  this  property,  Messrs. 
Dumois,  who  came  into  the  region  about  1889  and  out 
of  primeval  forest  developed,  as  their  principal  interest, 
a  banana  plantation  which  drew  fleets  of  fruiters  into 
Banes  Bay,  to  carry  away,  one  season,  a  million  and  a 
half  bunches.  The  particular  property  which  embraces 
Tacajo  and  its  orchard  was  not  an  integral  part  of  the 
banana  plantations,  and  has  been  only  recently  acquired 
by  the  United  Fruit  Company. 

In  1899  that  company  as  it  exists  to-day  resulted 
from  the  combination  of  several  interests  and  their 
purchase  of  still  others,  among  them  the  Banes  and 
Sama  companies,  as  the  Dumois'  organizations  were 
called.  The  United  Fruit  Company  proposed  to  con- 
tinue the  banana  business  at  Banes,  and  did  so  continue 
it,  until  experience  demonstrated  that  it  was  not  as 
profitable  as  had  been  anticipated.  The  fruit,  for 
instance,  did  not  carry  well,  nor  was  the  season  when  it 
might  be  exported  sufficiently  long.  Cana-then-begi 
to  make  its  appearance  in  the  fields ;  in  1901  a  mill, 
just  erected,  commenced  grinding;  and,  in  1906,  the 
cane  fields  closed  over  the  last  of  the  banana  groves. 
Fruit  was  completely  abandoned.  The  place  was  made 
a  sugar  plantation,  and  given  the  name  of  Central 
Boston.  — — -— 

The  plantation  now  comprises  about  90,000  acres 
lying  all  about  Banes  Bay  and  touching  the  neighboring 


470  CUBA 

Bay  of  Nipe.  Of  these  25,000  acres  are  under  cane  ; 
the  company  purchases  the  product  of  1500  acres 
of  other  cane  grown  by  adjoining  neighbors,  making 
a  total  of  26,500  acres  of  land  producing  for  the 
consumption  of  Boston  mill,  which  is  converting  their 
crop  into  400,000  or  425,000  bags  of  sugar  (estimated 
output  for  the  season  now  in  progress). 
^^  Fifteen  thousand  acres  of  the  company's  land  is 
i^ pasture,  planted  to  guinea  and  para  grass,  for  the  benefit 
of  4400  head  of  stock,  —  horses,  mules,  oxen,  and  a  few 
Mysore  bulls  used  for  crossbreeding  with  native 
cows,  —  needed  on  the  estate.  The  company  owns 
250  oxcarts,  made  in  its  own  shops ;  they  are  used  to 
haul  cane  from  field  to  railway.  To  transport  it  to 
the  mill  the  company  operates  one  hundred  miles  of 
private  road ;  the  rolling  stock  consists  of  640  cane 
cars  (there  are  also  merchandise  cars,  ballast  cars,  etc.) 
and  seventeen  locomotives,  including  two  curious  in- 
spection engines,  in  one  of  which  we  rode.  There  is 
also  an  ocean-going  tug  needed  to  pull  steamers  in  and 
out  the  tortuous  channel  which  is  the  only  entrance  to 
Banes  Bay.  There  is  a  small  steam  launch,  for  work 
inside  the  harbor. 

The  company  employs,  while  the  grinding  season  is 
in  progress,  about  five  thousand  persons,  of  all  classes, 
colors,  and  nationalities.  In  the  ^^dead  season''  their 
number  dwindles  to  one  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred, 
busied  in  the  work  of  cultivation,  repairs,  and  the 
general  preparation  mill,  fields,  and  equipment  must 
undergo. 

We  realized  only  the  size,  and  not  the  excellent  or- 
ganization, of  the  community  through  which  we  trav- 
eled from  Dumois  to  Embarcadero,  where  the  custom- 
house, some  other  offices,  the  manager's  residence  and  the 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  471 

guest  house  stand  together,  forming  a  village  through 
which  lies  a  stately,  sanded  avenue  of  casuarina  trees. 
I  shall  not  forget  our  first  glimpse  of  Banes  Bay,  seen 
through  a  fringe  of  cocoanut  palms,  as  we  turned  from 
that  avenue.  It  lay  like  the  deepest  blue  of  opals,  in  a 
setting  of  emeralds,  for  especially  the  hills  opposite 
were  green.  Our  attention  was  invited  to  two  of  them 
and  to  their  relative  position  as  seen  from  the  riverlike 
entrance  to  Banes  Bay,  all  of  which  tallies  with  Colum- 
bus' description,  as  Las  Casas  gives  it,  of  the  harbor 
into  which  he  entered  when  he  first  landed  on  Cuba. 

The  manager's  charming  Scotch  wife  welcomed  us, 
and  showed  us  to  the  guest  house,  where  we  were  given  a 
room.  A  maid  was  placed  at  our  orders.  The  mana- 
ger's residence  was  a  step  from  this  guest  house.  It  was 
well  furnished,  and  into  it  its  occupants  had  put  a  re- 
freshing atmosphere  of  good  breeding. 

I  believe  a  manager  of  an  estate  like  this  one,  and 
especially  his  wife,  must  have  need  of  a  very  thorough 
grounding  in  unflagging  courtesy.  It  was  the  holiday 
season,  —  two  days,  to  be  exact,  before  New  Year's. 
Our  party  (there  were  three  of  us,  —  my  mother,  Dr. 
Karutz,  the  Industrial  Agent  of  the  Cuba  Railroad,  and 
myself)  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  either  Mr. 
Harty  or  his  wife,  nor  any  excuse  for  our  intrusion 
beyond  our  desire  to  see  Boston  and  a  formal  statement 
made  to  me  upon  the  occasion  of  my  chance  meeting  with 
Mr.  Harty  some  months  before,  that  visitors  are 
welcome.  Yet  we  arrived,  announced  only  by  a  letter 
to  the  effect  that  we  would  be  there.  We  found 
other  visitors  present,  —  a  government  employee  and 
his  wife  who  had  come  three  weeks  or  so  before,  and 
still  stayed  on,  with  what  pretext,  if  any,  I  am  not  aware. 
They  had  a  room  in  the  guest  house  and  a  place  at  the 


472  CUBA 

manager's  table.  It  happened  that  the  Banes  Polo 
Club;  an  athletic  and  social  organization  among  the 
young  men  employees  of  the  place,  had  planned  a  dance 
for  New  Yearns,  and  to  be  a  special  guest  at  this  Mrs. 
Harty  had  invited  a  young  woman  from  Camaguey, 
with  her  mother.  The  best  room  in  the  guest  house 
was  ready  for  their  occupancy,  —  they  were  to  arrive 
by  a  later  train  on  that  same  day,  - —  when  we  walked 
in  and  made  ourselves  perfectly  at  home  in  it !  Mrs. 
Harty  was  obliged  to  take  her  own  friends  into  her  house 
and  make  them  comfortable  there  as  best  she  could, 
for  there  was  no  other  place.  Yet  her  welcome  was 
cordial  to  interloping  strangers  who  caused  the  incon- 
venience. Duck  and  turkey  and  tender  green  peas, 
almonds  and  champagne,  were  spread  upon  her  board 
for  our  consumption,  and  we  were,  in  every  particular 
possible,  shown  the  honors  of  Boston.  The  situation 
grew  more  acute  —  it  must  have,  to  the  hostess  —  with 
every  hour,  for  here  she  had  every  bed  in  her  guest  house 
occupied  by  strangers,  friends  crowded  in  her  own  resi- 
dence, and  others,  including  one  particular  young  man, 
invited  to  arrive  from  elsewhere  :  the  question  of  what  to 
do  with  him  must  have  agitated  her,  and  especially 
must  it  have  disturbed  the  equanimity  of  the  young 
woman  from  Camaguey.  We  relieved  the  situation,  as 
soon  as  we  perceived  the  strain  of  it,  by  announcing  our 
own  departure  for  the  very  earliest  moment.  I  have 
seen  nothing  more  heroic  than  Mr.  Harty^s  good- 
mannered  struggle  to  keep  an  expression  of  relief  from 
his  face  as  he  learned  of  our  irrevocable  determination  to 
move  on.  He  had  been  gazing  into  the  abyss  of  the 
dire  necessity  of  asking  us  to  do  just  that,  and  I  can  fancy 
no  more  distressing  situation  for  a  gentleman  as  genu- 
inely hospitable  as  he. 


TEE    NIPE   BAY   DISTRICT  473 

Before  we  left  we  had  a  cursory  look  at  the  principal 
features  of  Boston  estate.  Plantation  headquarters  are 
just  across  the  river  from  the  town  of  Banes  (population 
4000),  of  which  they  seem,  really,  to  be  an  improved 
extension.  Here  are  machine  and  car  shops,  the  saw- 
mill, railroad  offices,  the  stores,  the  manager's  office,  and 
the  offices  of  the  heads  of  departments.  Along  both 
sides  of  a  clean  graded  street  where  shade  trees  are 
planted  are  the  residences  of  employees.  Facing  on 
this  street  is  a  ball  ground,  where  the  children  romp  ; 
and  the  Polo  Club  plays,  when  its  members  have  the 
time.  There  are  also  tennis  courts.  Opposite  the  main 
office  building  is  a  park  in  which  a  gardener,  trained  in 
the  government  experimental  station  in  Jamaca,  has 
brought  forth  beautiful  flowers,  in  well-ordered  beds  and 
groups ;  there  is  a  little  fountain  around  which  water 
lilies  float. 

The  company  maintains  here  a  principal  store,  with 
six  branches  scattered  among  the  villages  and  settle- 
ments over  the  plantation  (at  the  port,  at  the  mill, 
at  Los  Angeles,  at  Guira,  at  Tacajo,  and  at  Negritos). 
It  handles  general  merchandise.  The  company  operates 
the  store  department,  not,  primarily,  to  make  money, 
but  to  assure  a  ready  supply  of  all  things  needful.  In 
evidence :  American  shoes  of  first-class  makes  may  be 
purchased  at  the  company  store  at  less  than  their 
retail  price  within  the  United  States.  Employees 
are  free  to  patronize  the  company  stores  or  to  buy  else- 
where ;  across  the  river  in  the  native  village  there  are 
competitive  establishments.  There  are  a  post  office  and 
a  rural  guard  station  (garrison,  twenty-five  men,  not 
including  a  small  outpost  at  Tacajo).  The  post  office 
and  rural  guard  quarters  are  on  company  land  in  build- 
ings the  company  provides.     The  company  pays  its 


474  CUBA 

own  force  of  twenty  field  guards,  who  are,  as  is  the 
usual  custom,  licensed  to  bear  arms  on  the  agreement 
that  they  are  liable  to  the  call  of  the  local  authorities  in 
any  case  of  trouble.  The  company  maintains  a  hospi- 
tal ;  it  has  a  fever  ward, ^"surgical  ward,  an  isolated 
ward  for  infectious  cases,  and  a  woman's  department. 
The  operating  room  is  completely  equipped.  There  is 
little  sickness  at  Boston.  Some  years  ago  an  epidemic 
of  typhoid  fever  occurred,  since  which  date  the  company 
has  supplied  pure  drinking  water,  pumped  from  the 
very  source  of  the  Banes  River  and  distributed  by  cart 
and  train,  to  man  and  beast,  in  every  part  of  the 
plantation. 

We  were  particularly  interested  in  the  company  school 
for  children  of  employees.  It  occupies  a  company 
building  in  the  village  where  the  mill  hands  reside,  close 
under  the  walls  of  the  sugar  house  itself.  The  teacher, 
a  gentleman  of  education  and  culture,  is  paid  by  the 
company,  who  declined  the  government's  offefTo" supply 
a  teacher  because  it  is  desired  to  keep  politics  out  of  the 
school  and  make  it  a  good  one.  There  are  two  depart- 
ments in  the  school,  one  for  girls  and  one  for  boys; 

.  the  average  combined  attendance  is,  say,  sixty  pupils. 
The  instruction  given  is  directed  toward  making  the 

'  girls  intelligent  and  cleanly  housekeepers ;  the  training 
afforded  the  boys  is  intended  to  form  them  into  compe- 
tent employees.  There  are  grassy  playgrounds  beside 
the  schoolhouse ;  gymnastics  are  taught,  and  the  boys 
are  exercised  by  way  of  military  drill.  On  exhibition 
and  holidays  they  appear  in  uniform,  on  which  occasions 
the  little  girls  all  wear  white  dresses  and  gay  ribbons. 
No  advantage  the  company  provides  its  employees  is 
more  appreciated  than  this  really  excellent  school,  — 
and  nothing  at  Boston  seemed  to  me  more  typical  of  the 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  476 

whole  theory  of  ^^enlightened  selfishness'^  so  closely 
resembling  philanthropy  on  which  the  whole  plantation 
is  conducted. 

Within  sight  and  hearing  from  Embarcadero,  across 
the  waters  of  the  Bay  upon  a  point  of  land  extending 
into  it,  is  the  heart  of  the  plantation,  the  sugar  mill 
itself.  It  began  to  grind  in  1901,  with  a  production 
then  of  fifty-nine  thousand  bags;  in  1909  it  manu- 
factured three  hundred  and  seventy-three  thousand 
five  hundred  bagfuls,  an  output  which  gave  it  second 
place  among  the  factories  of  Cuba;  in  1910  it  plans  to 
make  from  four  hundred  thousand  to  four  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  bags  of  sugar,  a  production  which 
will  maintain  it  in  that  relative  position,  Chaparra  still 
leading  as  the  largest  mill  not  only  in  Cuba,  but  in  all 
the  world.  The  foundations  are  laid  for  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  mill.  Prosaic  and  dingily  gray  in  the  day, 
the  sugar  house  at  Boston  shines  at  night,  with  the 
thousand  arc  lights  that  keep  it  bright  as  noon.  All 
through  the  night  watches  the  steady  roar  of  its 
machinery  sounds,  and  by  the  timbre  of  that  voice  the 
manager  can  tell  that  alFs  well  with  the  work.  Its 
whistles,  calling  shifts  of  men  on  and  off,  echo  in  the 
far  hills.  To  it  as  to  a  magnet  the  cane  trains  come  by 
land  and  the  sugar  ships  by  sea. 

From  Embarcadero  we  traveled  back  to  Dumois, 
on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1909,  in  the  ''mail  train'' ; 
it  carries  box  cars  in  which  passengers  are  permitted 
to  ride  free.  There  were  chairs  placed  for  us,  and  we 
were  comfortable.  At  Dumois  we  took  the  Cuba  Rail- 
road train,  when,  at  last,  it  passed  through  that  station, 
and,  after  a  short  ride  northward,  we  emerged  from 
woods,  over  a  long  trestle  across  shallow  salt  water  lying 
quietly  among  mangrove  keys,  into  Antilla,  on  Nipe 


'    476  CUBA 

Bay.  From  the  depot  on  the  wharf  we  followed  a  trail 
footworn  in  a  little  bluff  one  must  climb  to  arrive  in  the 
town. 

There  are  those  who  profess  enthusiasm  for^Antilla. 
^^  It  is  the  northern  terminus  of  the  Cuba  Railroad  system, 
and  this  company  has  provided  it  with  better  terniinal 
facilities  than  most  Cuban  ports  possess.  The  docks 
are  long  enough  to  accommodate  four  or  five  ships  at  a 
time ;  the  depth  of  water  is  twenty-three  feet.  There 
are  three  warehouses,  used  principally,  I  understand, 
for  the  storage  of  sugar,  outbound  from  Jatibonico, 
San  Antonio,  and  Tuinucu.  They  are  conveniently 
situated  so  that  cars  draw  up  on  one  side  to  unload 
merchandise,  which  steamers,  on  the  other  side,  receive 
as  readily,  or  vice  versa.  There  are  three  tanks  for 
storing  molasses ;  the  capacity  of  each  is  five  hundred 
thousand  gallons.  The  Munson  Line  maintains  a  regu- 
lar fortnightly  service  between  Antilla  and  New  York ; 
there  are  two  trains  daily  from  the  town,  inland  to  Alto 
Cedro  on  the  Havana-Santiago  main  line.  Antilla  Js 
y  theTogi.ca1  port  (entry  and  pxit)  for  all  the  east  end  of 
^CuHa/ along  the  railroad  trunk  line  and  north  of  It. 
"  1  liel&rst  year  it  was  open  for  business  its  customhouse, 
which  is  not  at  Antilla,  but  across  the  Bay  at  Preston, 
ranked  seventh  in  the  island,  on  the  basis  of  traffic 
liandled.  Its  imports  amounted  to  over  twenty  thou- 
sand tons,  not  including  several  million  feet  of  lumber ; 
its  exports  (sugar,  hard  woods,  etc.)  were  valued  at  three 
million  dollars.  Exactly  what  its  present  standing  is 
I  am  not  aware,  but  I  presume  heavy  importations  of 
railway  construction  materials  made  recently  have 
sustained  its  relative  importance. 

I  should  like  to  know  why  Antilla  was  given  the  loca- 
tion that  it  occupies;    excepting  as  the  railroad  com- 


THE    NIPE    BAY    BISTBICT  477 

pany  has,  at  great  expense,  given  it  terminal  facilities, 
it  has  not,  that  I  can  discover,  the  attractions  of  other 
points  upon  the  bay  a  casual  observer  would  prefer 
because  of  their  deeper  water  close  ashore,  their  pleas- 
anter  outlook,  and  the  fact  that  sweet  water  is  to  be 
had  more  readily.  Yet  Antilla  seems  to  be  developing : 
many  a  city  flourishes  despite  greater  disadvantages 
than  those  it  is  overcoming.  There  are,  along  its  two 
streets,  neat  concrete  cottages,  built  on  models  a  little 
unsuited  to  that  material  and  this  climate,  which  house 
comfortably,  nevertheless,  those  employees  to  whom 
they  are  assigned.  Other  residents  in  the  town  have 
built  their  dwellings  of  frame,  each  on  plans  as  elabo- 
rate as  he  could  afford  ;  they  range  in  style  from  good- 
looking  bungalows  to  ''  shacks ''  which  are  otherwise. 

We  arrived  at  the  new  hotel  here,  then,  on  New  Yearns 
Eve,  and  in  its  main  dining  room  our  dinner  was  served 
that  night.  Let  us  pass  this  point  rapidly.  My 
mother  and  I,  Dr.  Karutz,  who  is  a  German,  and  Mr. 
Dautrive,  the  French-American  representative  of  the 
Munson  Line,  whom  we  met  on  arrival,  gazed  with 
a  unanimity  which  would  have  done  honor  to  an  interna- 
tional conference,  in  disapproval  on  the  five  varieties  of 
meat,  unrelieved  by  any  vegetable,  which  were  served 
to  us.  Then  and  there  we  organized  secession  :  on  the 
back  of  an  envelope  Mr.  Dautrive  noted  down  the 
articles  necessary  to  a  wholesome  simple  New  Year's 
Day  dinner,  as  my  mother  counted  them  off  on  her 
experienced  fingers.  This  list  was  later  submitted  to 
Mr.  Young,  ^Hhe  pioneer  groceryman,''  and  next 
morning,  bright  and  early,  my  mother  and  I  took  pos- 
session of  Mr.  Dautrive's  bachelor  cottage  near,  of  his 
dining  room,  and  of  his  kitchen  most  especially.  He 
sent  reinforcements  in  the  person  of  a  Jamaican  cook. 


478  CUBA 

Mr.  Young  had  delivered  the  groceries  requested,  sup- 
plemented by  contributions  of  his  own.  At  one  o'clock, 
our  number  augmented  by  his  company,  we  sat  down 
to  dinner.  To  be  sure,  the  potatoes  were  a  little  discol- 
ored, and  in  the  one  moment  in  which  she  was  not 
watched  the  Jamaican  cook  had  made  the  stewed 
chicken  look  as  though  it  had  been  run  through  an  in- 
discriminate meat  chopper;  the  nuts  were  a  little 
stale  (this  caused  Mr.  Young  pained  surprise),  and  the 
sliced  oranges,  to  prepare  which  I  had  labored  impor- 
tantly, had  all  the  appearance  of  having  been  already 
chewed,  but  we  deemed  it  a  royal  ^'spread,  '^  and  capped 
it  with  Spanish  fruit  pastes  out  of  tins  and  small  boxes, 
accompanied  by  fresh  grapes  (flavored  with  the  sawdust 
in  which  they  crossed  from  the  Peninsula)  sent  by  the 
landlady  of  the  hotel,  with  generous  courtesy,  as  her 
contribution  to  our  feast.  At  supper  time  we  once 
more  gathered  about  the  board,  —  and  ate  the  scraps  ! 
That  night  we  played  poker,  recklessly,  for  chips,  in  the 
house  of  a  neighboring  family.  The  sound  of  our  hilarity 
as  we  lost  and  won  fortunes  in  celluloid  on  ^Hwo  pair, 
nines  high''  disturbed  the  quietude  of  our  respectable 
neighborhood  until  as  late  as  nine  p.m.  In  the  bar- 
room of  the  hotel  the  dock  hands  were  dancing,  to  the 
accompaniment  of  an  accordion  and  handclapping. 
Next  morning  before  daylight  we  were  dressed  and 
ready  to  depart.  Mr.  Dautrive,  swinging  a  lantern, 
accompanied  us  to  the  wharf,  and  here  we  took  passage 
upon  a  small  tugboat,  on  the  supposition  that  it  would 
land  us  at  about  nine  o'clock  that  morning  at  Saetia. 
We  put  out,  and  the  hours  wore  on.  Now  that  I  know 
the  bay  a  little  better,  I  wonder  where  we  spent  the  time 
that  elapsed  between  our  departure  and  high  noon, 
which  found  us,  to  our  discomfiture,  far  up  the  Mayari 


THE    NIPE    BAY   DISTRICT  479 

River  with  Saetia  about  fifteen  miles  astern.  We  were 
the  only  passengers  for  that  plantation,  where,  despite 
the  fact  that  he  had  sold  us  our  tickets,  the  captain 
seemed  disinclined  to  deliver  us  as  agreed.  I  was  far 
too  hungry,  too  hot,  and  too  angry  to  observe,  as  we 
worked  our  way  along,  towing  heavy  barges,  that  the 
river  we  followed  was  exceedingly  beautiful,  mangrove 
which  overhangs  the  banks  at  its  mouth  giving  way 
very  shortly  to  better  land,  cultivated  especially  to  the 
extra  heavy  tobacco  which  keeps  this  district  as  famous 
now  as  it  was  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

A  turn  brought  us  under  a  very  high  steep  bluff; 
we  saw  houses  on  top  of  it,  and  people  peered  over, 
interestedly.  We  drew  up  at  a  landing,  and  learned 
that  this  was  Mayari.  I  had,  meanwhile,  accepted  the 
volunteered  assistance  of  a  most  pleasant  Cuban,  a 
tobacco  grower  and  manufacturer,  who  raises  his  crop 
at  Mayari  Abajo  and  elaborates  it  at  San  Luis.  He 
agreed  to  accompany  us  to  the  house  of  the  consignees 
of  this  erratic  line,  of  whom  I  proposed  to  learn  why 
their  captain  had  sold  us  tickets  to  a  wayport  he  later 
omitted  to  visit  because,  for  some  reason  I  had  yet  to 
learn,  it  did  not  suit  his  convenience  to  call  there.  I 
think  news  of  our  errand  had  preceded  us,  for  when, 
after  wading  through  mud  from  the  landing  to  the  main 
street,  and  traveling  along  this  (it  is  as  tortuous  as  a 
cowpath),  we  arrived  before  the  gentleman,  he  urged 
us  to  return  aboard  at  once,  as  the  vessel  was  just 
about  to  clear,  en  route  to  Saetia  and  to  Felton.  We 
footed  it  back  on  a  dogtrot.  I  paused  only  long 
enough  to  purchase  four  eggs  and  four  oranges  from  a 
kiosk  on  the  dock.  A  dozen  persons  who  also  desired 
to  see  the  last  of  Mayari  were  on  board.  The  captain 
reappeared  presently,  emitting  fire,  brimstone,  and  im- 


480  CUBA 

pertinent  remarks  upon  Americans,  especially  strong- 
minded  American  women  who  insist  upon  being  taken 
where  they  may  have  paid  to  go.  His  conduct  caused 
a  red-headed  Spaniard  to  shuffle  his  feet  nervously. 
I  think  had  anybody  cried  ''Seek  'em!''  in  Gallician, 
we  would  have  witnessed  a  fight. 

A  pilot  shoved  us  off  and  bade  us  God-speed  with  the 
air  of  commending  us  to  our  own  insistent  ways.  One 
young  fellow  among  the  ten  or  twelve  aboard  began  to 
relate  the  number  and  nature  of  the  shoals  we  must  cross 
to  get  into  the  bay;  he  doubted  that  we  could  make 
it  over  the  last  bar  at  the  river's  mouth,  at  that  hour. 
Meanwhile,  the  solitary  crew  cooked  our  eggs,  peeled 
our  oranges,  and  served  coffee  all  around,  restoring 
good-nature  generally.  We  helped  ourselves  to  bread 
from  a  dirty  canvas  bag  hanging  in  the  litfTe  cabin, 
through  a  hole  the  rats  had  chewed.  When  we  came 
near  the  worst  bars,  the  captain  ordered  all  to  the  bow, 
and  there  we  sat,  crowded  as  far  up  as  might  be,  in 
hopes  to  relieve  weight  in  the  middle  and  toward  the 
stern  of  the  boat.  The  captain  opined  we'd  pass  the 
night  amid  mosquito  hosts  among  the  mangroves.  I 
suggested  we  should,  if  we  stuck,  go  ashore  in  the  small 
boat  and  walk  across  country  to  Preston.  He  assured 
me  the  small  boat  was  unseaworthy.  The  passenger 
who  knew  the  river  interrupted  to  exclaim  that  we  were 
hard  upon  the  worst  bar.  Three  or  four  of  us  then  went 
through  exaggerated  pantomime  of  lifting  up  with  all  our 
might,  —  and  she  bumped,  —  she  bumped,  and  cleared. 
It  was  now  almost  sunset.  At  the  river's  mouth  we 
met  another  vessel  of  this  same  navigation  company's, 
which  should  have  gone  on  to  touch  at  Saetia  and  at 
Felton  before  proceeding  upstream.  Instead,  it  trans- 
ferred its  passengers  for  those  points  to  our  tug,  and 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  481 

hurried  home,  leaving,  as  we  found  later,  persons  on  the 
dock  at  Felton  who  were,  because  of  its  conduct,  unable 
to  make  Mayari  that  night.  We  were,  because  it  was 
late,  compelled  to  forego  our  visit,  then,  to  Saetia ;  we 
proceeded  to  Felton,  and  there  disembarked.  We  were 
consoled,  in  part,  for  the  loss  of  our  day  at  Saetia  by  the 
knowledge  that,  at  any  rate,  the  captain  did  not  attend 
the  cockfight  at  Mayari,  to  reach  which,  it  seems,  he 
had  attempted  to  shorten  his  route  by  omitting  our  port. 

Early  on  that  unhappy  Sunday  morning  we  had 
passed  Preston.  This^gar  plantation  is  the  property 
of  the  Nipe  Bay  Company ;  the  capital  interested  is 
American,  and  the  executive  officers  are  those  of 
the  United  Fruit  Company.  They  own  all  the  common 
stock.  The  plantation  comprises  about  128,000  acres 
of  land  lying  west  of  the  winding  Mayari  River,  along 
the  south  shore  of  Nipe  Bay.  Of  this  area  88,669 
acres  are  unimproved  land ;  13,329  acres  of  pastures 
planted  to  keep  the  2800  head  of  stock  used  on  the 
estate  ;  and  over  22,000  acres  are  under  cristalina  cane, 
set  six  by  six.  Fire  lines,  extra  wide  and  thick-carpeted 
with  sweet  potato  vines,  blocking  the  plantation  into 
eighteen-acre  squares,  together  with  roads  and  railroad 
right  of  way,  account  for  difference  in  the  foregoing 
reckoning. 

Flat  along  the  Bay^s  edge,  this  land  rises  with  distance 
from  the  water ;  hills  and  streams  diversify  its  surface. 
All  trees  have  been  removed  ruthlessly,  and,  in  some 
cases,  obviously  unnecessarily,  till  cane  fields  cover  the 
country  like  a  smooth,  unwrinkled  blanket.  The 
area  of  cane  to  be  cut  and  ground,  this  season,  is 
22^,228  acres,  all  grown  under  administration.  Grinding 
began  on  the  20th  of  last  December,  ^nd  should 
continue,    conditions    remaining   favorable,    until  the 

2i 


482  CUBA 

middle  of  September,  with  no  respite  either  by  day  or 
by  night.  Men  work  in  shifts,  and  the  machinery  is 
cleaned  in  such  manner  that  no  complete  stop  is 
necessary.  To  feed  the  mill  a  hundred  acres  of  cane 
must  be  leveled  daily ;  it  is  equivalent  to  about  3200 
tons  of  cane,  which  the  mill  converts  into  three  hundred 
tons  of  sugar,  or  2100  bags,  with  an  approximate  value 
(at  present  prices)  of  $8  per  bag,  —  $16,800  worth  of 
product  per  diem.  It  is  planned  to  add  a  third  unit  to 
this  mill  in  order  to  grind  5000  tons  of  cane  a  day,  and 
make  over  half  a  million  bags  of  sugar  a  season. 
The  enlargement  would  mean  the  investment  of  an 
additional  million  dollars. 

To  bring  its  cane  to  the  mill,  which  is  all  neatly  packed 
within  a  single  gray  steel  building  on  the  point  of  land 
where  the  town  of  Preston  congregates,  the  company 
operates  sixty  miles  of  standard-gauge  railroad,  with  a 
rolling  stock  of  eleven  forty-three-ton  Baldwin  loco- 
motives and  three  hundred  and  thirty-five  steel  cars, 
equipped  with  automatic  couplers  and  brakes.  There 
are  tracks  from  the  mill  the  full  length  of  the  nineteen- 
hundred-foot  wharf  where  the  sugar  ships  tie  in  twenty 
feet  of  water. 

The  interior  arrangement  of  the  mill  is  new :  it  is 
notably  compact.  The  machinery  is  so  placed  that  it 
does  its  work  with  a  minimum  outlay  of  energy,  in  a 
minimum  of  space.  From  the  ground  floor  the  juice  is 
pumped  to  the  top,  from  where  it  descends  from  opera- 
tion to  operation  by  gravity.  By  the  time  it  reaches  the 
ground  floor  again  it  is  sugar,  pouring  from  a  chute  into 
a  wide-mouthed  bag.  The  machinery  in  use,  with  the 
exception  of  the  boilers  (English),  is  American.  The 
pan  floor  is  considered  the  finest  in  Cuba,  basing  judg- 
ment on  arrangement  and  results. 


THE    NIFE   BAY    DISTRICT  483 

In  short,  Preston  plantation  represents  the  latest  hy^ 
the  sugar  business  of  Cuba,  and  its  factory  is  especially^ 
the  embodiment  of  all  that  is  revolutionary.  It  is, 
to  begin  with,  owned  by  Americans.  Americans  have 
but  lately  become  investors  on  any  considerable  scale 
in  this  industry,  here.  It  is  managed  by  an  American, 
assisted  by  men  of  other  nationalities,  especially  Eng- 
lish, with  wider  tropical  experience  and  more  thorough 
training  to  their  duties  than  Americans  have  heretofore 
had  time  or  opportunity  to  attain.  The  machinery 
is  American,  and  it  has  given  satisfaction.  Ten  years 
ago  American  makers  pleaded  in  vain  for  any  chance  to 
demonstrate  their  ability  to  turn  out  acceptable  sugar- 
mill  machinery.  Some  offered  terms  equivalent  to 
presenting  plantation  owners  with  machinery  of  their 
manufacture,  confident  that  its  installation  would  lead 
to  business,  but  even  the  gift  was  declined,  and  Europe 
continued  to  monopolize  this  market.  When  American 
capital  began  to  control  and  to  own  mills  these  American 
manufacturers  were  for  the  first  time  permitted  to  prove 
themselves.  They  have  learned  much  at  the  expense  of 
their  fellow  countrymen  customers,  but  that  they  have 
learned  is  evident,  for  American  foundries  are  to-day 
supplying  a  very  considerable  and  increasing  proportion 
of  mill  machinery  imported  into  Cuba,  and  although 
it  still  lacks  the  finish  in  detail  that  European  machinery 
has,  ^4t  results,"  as  they  say  in  Spanish.  It  is  sold,  too, 
despite  very  serious  handicaps  in  the  shape  of  high  freight 
rates  prevailing  over  the  distance  between  American 
shops  and  Cuban  plantations.  Along  with  their  Ameri- 
can-made machinery,  and  the  ingenious  new  patents 
and  devices  it  involves,  American  owners  and  operators 
have  introduced  other  truly  American  innovations, 
especially    in    the    arrangement    of    mills,    the    great 


484  CUBA 

desideratum  being  very  American,  i.e.  to  save  time^ 
The  change  shows  in  the  very  shape  of  the  sugarhouse, 
in  the  comparatively  small  area  of  ground  it  occupies, 
and  the  close  packing  of  its  contents ;  the  older  a  sugar 
mill  here  the  more  room  its  parts  take  up.  And,  finally, 
in  the  general  management  of  their  gigantic  properties, 
it  is  the  American  owners  who  have  replaced  defective 
and  picturesque  paternalism,  formerly  prevailing,  with 
that  same  system  of  wisely  ^^enlightened  selfishness'' 
we  remarked  at  Boston.  It  prevails,  too,  at  Preston. 
It  is  not  practiced  from  any  sentimental  motives,  but 
because  keen  business  men  recognj^e  it  as  the  very  best 
business  policy. 

The  population  of  the  plantation  at  Preston  was 
6758  persons  in  April,  1909.  Of  these,  4956  were 
Cubans;  891,  Spaniards ;  347,  Haytians ;  162,  Jamai- 
cans ;  134,  Porto  Ricans ;  126,  Chinamen ;  52,  Ameri- 
cans ;  12,  British  ;  8,  French  ;  and  70,  miscellaneous,  — 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth  !  About  4500  men  are 
directly  employed  by  the  Nipe  Bay  Company  in  the 
busy  season.     Many  others  are  indirectly  supported. 

There  is  a  village  for  workmen.  It  is  precisely  laid 
out.  Its  cottages,  all  painted  white,  with  red  roofs, 
are  free  to  employees,  but  there  is  an  upkeep  charge 
equivalent  to  a  nominal  rent.  There  are,  in  the  village, 
two  churches.  The  Catholic  church  represents  an 
expenditure  of  $15,000 ;  the  altar  ornaments  and  the 
vestments  were  presented  by  the  directors  of  the  com- 
pany. The  company  also  built  the  Protestant  church 
building.  There  is  a  school,  conducted  in  a  company 
schoolhouse,  by  a  teacher  the  government  pays ;  this 
school  is,  therefore,  part  of  the  regular  free  school  system 
of  the  republic.  There  is  a  good  drug  store,  and  a  hospi- 
tal with  beds  for  fifty  or  sixty  patients,  which  we  did  not 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  485 

see  because  one  of  these  patients  was  having  deUrium 
tremens  at  the  time,  and  it  was  rightfully  supposed 
we  would  not  enjoy  the  ravings  of  our  fellow  country- 
man. Every  employee  contributes  fifty  cents  a  month 
to  the  hospital  maintenance  fund,  and  is,  in  case  of 
illness,  entitled  to  care  free  of  other  charge.  The 
hospital  entails  a  regular  loss  to  the  company. 

There  is  a  post-office  at  Preston  and  telegraph  con- 
nection with  the  rest  of  the  island.  There  is  a  telephone 
between  the  plantation  and  neighboring  estates,  to  say 
nothing  of  a  complete  telephone  system  over  the  prop- 
erty itself.  The  same  electric  power  plant  which  op- 
erates the  machine  shop  and  runs  the  cranes  supplies  the 
village,  and  Staff  Row,  with  arc  and  incandescent  lights, 
in  the  streets  and  in  the  houses. 

To  assure  its  purity  water  is  pumped  in,  over  a  dis- 
tance of  nine  miles,  from  the  source  of  the  Mayari  River. 

The  company  has  a  very  complete  merchandise  de- 
partment ;  the  main  store  at  Preston  has  six  branches  on 
the  estate.  The  furthest  branch  store,  situated  twenty- 
seven  miles  inland,  sells  at  the  prices  which  prevail 
in  the  main  store,  and  these  are  lower  than  those  usual 
where  competition,  which  does  not  exist  at  Preston,  is 
keen.  All  the  stores  are  well  stocked,  and  those  articles 
of  food  and  drink  which  are  considered  especially  whole- 
some are  retailed  at  exact  cost.  The  merchandise 
department  did  business  amounting  to  $612,000  last 
year ;  this  year  the  figure  will  probably  be  $700,000  and 
over.  The  company  kills  the  meat  eaten  on  the  planta- 
tion, and  conducts  dairies  which  are  operated  under  a 
physician's  inspection. 

The  manager's  house  is  a  two-story  frame ;  it  is 
nearest  the  mill,  at  the  head  of  a  double  row  of  cottages 
occupied  by  the  higher  employees  of  the  plantation. 


486  CUBA 

The  street  they  face  is  graded,  curbed,  and  shade 
trees  have  been  planted.  Each  house  has  its  yard  and 
its  garden,  as  handsome  as  the  occupant  sees  fit  to  make 
it.  There  is  a  tennis  court,  and  cricket  and  ball 
grounds. 

There  is  one  carriage  —  a  public  conveyance  —  at 
Preston,  and  in  this,  for  it  was  raining  when  we  arrived, 
we  made  our  approach  to  the  hotel,  a  commodious 
white  frame,  far  above  the  provincial  average  in  cleanli- 
ness and  service.  This  carriage  did  not,  however, 
dare  mar  with  a  wheel  the  sacred  gravel  along  Staff 
Row,  so  from  the  corner  we  walked. 

We  had  met,  a  short  time  previous  to  this,  an  English- 
man who  holds  high  position  among  the  employees  of  this 
company,  a  man  who,  in  sturdy  British  fashion,  learned 
the  sugar  business  from  the  bottom  upward,  commencing 
as  a  junior  with  a  ^^wine  allowance^'  on  one  side  of  the 
globe,  and  continuing  it  now  on  this  other  side  at  a 
very  agreeable  salary,  with  commensurate  responsibili- 
ties. When,  from  the  hotel,  we  sent  him  word  of  our 
arrival,  he  hastened  up  from  his  cottage  to  invite  us  to 
have  with  him  a  cup  of  tea.  Kipling  has,  I  think,  in  a 
couple  of  lines  which  are  usually  considered  poetry  be- 
cause he  wrote  them,  referred  to  the  fact  that  '^you 
can't  get  away  from  the  tune  that  they  play,  to  the 
bloomin'  old  rag  overhead.''  I  trust  my  quotation  is 
correct ;  I  do  not  vouch  for  that,  nor  for  the  accuracy 
of  its  statement,  but  assuredly  I  do  believe  that  no 
Englishman,  even  though  he  travel  beyond  the  furthest 
echo  of  the  loudest  ''God  save  the  King!"  and  past 
the  tallest  shadow  of  the  reddest,  bluest  British  ban- 
ner afloat,  ever  outdistances  his  tea.  I  recall  my  aston- 
ishment the  first  afternoon  I  happened  to  be,  on  busi- 
ness, in  the  office  of  the  Western  Railway  in  Havana  at 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  487 

the  appointed  hour,  and  was  proffered  tea.  With  what 
amazement  I  saw  the  solemn  Cuban  porter  enter,  bal- 
ancing a  very  full  cup  as  carefully  as  though  it  contained 
fragile  treasure,  or  nitroglycerine,  to  the  traffic  mana- 
ger, who  shoved  aside  schedules,  claims,  miscellaneous 
correspondence,  and  all  the  worry  they  represent,  to 
drink  that  beverage  with  evident  enjoyment !  I  came 
to  know  that  regularly  the  porter  prepares  it,  from  a 
supply  the  company  keeps  among  files  and  records  in 
a  wardrobe  in  the  manager's  office,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  his  steaming  cupful  pleasantly  ^^ divides''  each 
English  employee's  afternoon.  Their  Cuban  clerks  are 
not  included  in  the  refreshing  formality  ;  a  Cuban  buys 
his  tea  at  the  drug  store,  and  uses  it,  when  he  must,  as 
medicine.  I  have  often  wondered  if  an  Englishman 
ever  thinks,  as  he  lifts  his  teacup,  of  all  his  fellow  coun- 
trymen, and  women,  distant  relatives  and  friends,  in 
the  shires  and  counties  he  loves  and  at  far  outposts  in 
colonies  he  will  never  know,  who  join  with  him  in  that 
time-honored  ceremony  ?  For  my  part,  I  always  expect 
to  see  them  spill  a  few  drops  to  the  floor,  in  libation  to 
that  noble  beast,  the  British  lion,  who  purrs  amiably 
to  the  tinkle  of  teacups,  —  their  fragrant  steam  his 
incense  clouds  ! 

The  house  our  English  friend  at  Preston  inhabits  is 
charming.  Its  color  combinations,  decoration,  furni- 
ture, arrangement,  —  every  detail  is  in  exquisite  taste  ; 
we  appreciated  this  before  we  were  well  through  the 
front  door.  On  the  inclosed  veranda,  cool  and  pleas- 
antly protected  from  too  bright  light,  his  tea  —  a  soli- 
tary cup  already  prepared  —  was  waiting.  He  poured 
for  us.  As  we  sat  there  I  studied  the  house,  for  it 
keenly  interested  me.  It  was  obviously  a  man's  resi- 
dence.    There  was  the  usual  masculine  disorder,  yet 


488  CUBA 

here  it  was  not,  as  it  generally  is,  synonymous  with  un- 
tidiness and  neglect.  Never  have  I  seen  bachelor 
quarters  which  proclaimed  such  success  in  independence  ; 
they  do  usually  wail  for  help  !  Here  no  woman  could 
have  worked  any  improvement ;  it  was  disconcerting  to 
realize  that  every  change  she  would  have  attempted 
would  have  been  detrimental.  The  house,  especially 
the  atmosphere  of  it  (preeminently  masculine  amid 
comfort  and  good  taste)  seemed  to  me  no  mean  achieve- 
ment. Few  men  accomplish  as  much,  —  and  many, 
many  try. 

I  began  to  consider  more  attentively  the  one  who  had 
succeeded.  He  possesses  in  marked  degree  in  each 
phase  of  it  the  same  duality  of  ability  I  have  noted, 
before  and  since,  in  other  Britishers,  —  but  not  in  any 

\  American  that  I  know  :  the  ability,  on  one  hand,  to  do  a 
man's  work  in  a  man's  world,  and  the  no  less  desirable 
ability,  on  the  other,  to  supply  to  himself  ^^out  of  office 
V      hours''  those  vital  comforts  and  perhaps  no  less  vital 
^  ^  amenities  we  Americans  associate  with  ^^gentlewoman" 
^  N^  only.     Wherever,  in  Cuba,   in  the  capital  or  in  the 
provinces,  one  comes  upon  an  Englishman,  one  finds 
\^  ^  him  comfortable,  —  or  as  comfortable  as  may  be.     He 
is  by  no  means  above  making  himself  so,  having  no 
women  to  attend  to  the  details  for  him.     I  remember 
noting  especially  the  case  of  a  chief  engineer  who  ar- 
rived here  to  occupy  a  position  with  a  local  railway 
which  is  British  in  its  management ;  an  American  would 
have  entered  upon  his  work  instantly  upon  arrival,  but 
this  man's  first  concern  was  to  find  a  house  that  suited 
him  and  to  settle  himself  in  it.     Then,  and  not  before 
then,  he  was  ready  to  take  up  his  duties.     The  employ- 
ing company  gave  him  every  opportunity,  and  time, 
to  establish  himself  properly ;  thereafter  they  expected 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  489 

and  received  the  undivided  attention  of  a  man  not 
harassed  by  petty  annoyances  outside  his  work.  There 
is  a  very  deep  wisdom  back  of  the  Englishman's  insist- 
ence upon  his/ ^bahth/'  which  keeps  him  well;  and 
upon  his  tea,  which  affords  him  mental  relaxation  and 
no  detrimental  physical  stimulant  at  the  heaviest  hour 
in  his  day ;  and  even  in  his  tendency  to  ^^  dress  for  din- 
ner/' one  formality  he  can,  I  have  noticed,  be  influenced 
to  modify,  but  whether  he  changes  to  a  dinner  jacket  or 
merely  to  a  clean  shirt  for  the  evening,  he  by  no  means 
omits  to  change,  with  his  garments,  the  whole  tenor  of 
his  occupation  and  his  thought.  Meanwhile,  bathless, 
tealess,  dinner-jacketless,  the  American  works  on, 
absorbed  and  without  respite,  and  about  him  ^Hhings 
move ''  —  while  he  lasts.  Just  as  he  is  unable,  and 
actually  unwilling,  to  Bring  to  himself  comforts  and  re- 
laxation in  material  things,  so  he  is  unable,  no  matter 
how  willing,  to  relieve  his  mental  attitude  except  by  the 
aid  of  alcohol,  so  that  as  long  as  he  is  sober  he  talks 
by  night,  as  he  thinks  by  day,  in  a  single  groove  that 
deepens.  Those  who  look  over  Cuba  may  observe 
results. 

I  know  of  two  men  whose  friends  have  sent  them  out 
of  the  country,  to  asylums ;  one  was,  I  think,  a  Cana- 
dian (who  is  nearer  to  the  American  than  he  is  to  the 
Englishman  in  his  mental  processes)  and  the  other 
was  an  American.  I  have  yet  to  see  an  Englishman  (and 
as  ^^ English''  I  here  include .  protesting  Scotchmen 
and  Irish)  in  this  island  living  in  a  native  hut  amid 
unmodified  native  squalor ;  I  know  half  a  dozen  Ameri-^ 
cans  who  have  permitted  themselves  to  sink  to  it.  I 
do  not  know  of  an  Englishman  whom  his  native  neigh- 
bors do  not  regard  as  a  superior,  —  to  be  somewhat 
imitated,  —  and   so   his   influence   spreads ;  they   can 


490  CUBA 

hardly  entertain  that  opinion  of  one  or  two  Americans 
I  have  in  mind,  whom  they  have,  on  occasions,  picked 
out  of  the  roadside  ditch  and  carried  home.  I  know 
several  Englishmen  who  have  married  native  Cuban 
or  Spanish  women;  it  was  because  they  found  them 
what  they  desired.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  in 
dress  even  and  in  manner  they  have  imparted  to  these 
ladies  something  of  their  own  national  characteristics. 
I  know  as  many  Americans  who  have  married  similarly, 
but,  as  far  as  I  can  observe,  they  did  so  from  impulse. 
I  take  it  that  the  women  who  are  now  these  Americans^ 
wives  happened  to  be  close  at  hand  in  some  desperate 
moment  of  the  men^s  insufficiency.  They  laid  about  for 
help,  and  in  some  cases  they  are  cads  enough  to  inform 
even  casual  acquaintances  that  they  have  failed  to  find 
it  in  the  wife  acquired.  Few,  fortunately,  and  far  be- 
tween as  are  these  discreditable  American  colonists, 
they  are,  nevertheless,  '^straws  in  the  wind''  to  indicate 
that  we  have  yet  to  prove  ourselves  as  masters  in  the 
tropics.  I  sometimes  almost  fear  the  tropics  will,  in- 
stead, master  us.  Certainly,  for  any  authority  we  ex- 
ercise under  a  southern  sun,  we  are  to  pay  dear,  of 
our  dearest. 

For  the  Englishman,  who  has  long  worn  his  spurs 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  campaign  for  empire,  i  have 
acquired  and  will  maintain  a  well-grounded  respect, 
which  embraces  his  tea  and  his  tennis,  exponents  of 
his  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  health  in  the  fight 
he  is  making;  his  ^^ Blessed  DamoseP'  upon  the  wall, 
and  his  Sketch  and  his  Graphic  upon  the  living  room 
table,  reminders  of  his  kinship  elsewhere  and  the  im- 
portant fact  that  he  is  alien  and  must  remain  so  to  an 
environment  that  would  engulf  him.  How  many  long, 
long  years  of  tropic  heat,  hard  work,  and  loneliness  his 


wbw'. 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  491 

capacity  to  take  an  interest  in  the  color  of  his  rugs,  in 
the  size  of  turnips  in  his  truck  garden,  and  in  the  local 
consumption  of  White  Rose  tea  and  Nabisco  wafers,  lias 
enabled  him  to  endure  !  On  that  endurance,  and  on  the 
knowledge  he  acquires  through  his  experience  mean- 
while, depends  more  than  his  own  personal  welfare  and 
advancement,  for  with  him  marches  in  step  as  he 
marches  ^Hhe  bloomin'  old  rag,^'  and  ^Hhe  tune  that 
they  play^^  to  its  colors. 

From  Preston  we  set  out  bright  and  early  one  morning 
in  a  gasolene  launch  for  Saetia,  determined  to  reach 
that  place  this  time  by  the  shortest  possible  route. 
Three  of  the  Preston  ladies  and  a  little  girl  were  with 
us  ;  the  expedition  took  on  a  picnic  air,  which  was  some- 
hat  dampened  but  in  no  whit  discouraged  by  gray 
waves  of  bay  water  which  leaped  into  our  small  craft, 
soaking  us,  one  and  all,  as  we  cut  across  the  white  caps 
for  our  port. 

The  village  of  Saetia  is  admirably  located,  on  the  inner 
side  of  a  ridge  of  land  forming  the  backbone  of  a  penin- 
sula which  constitutes  the  easternmost  shore  of  Nipe 
Bay.  This  peninsula  has  been  made  an  island,  really, 
by  a  drainage  ditch  dug  across  its  narrowest  part. 
Saetia  is  clean  and  full  of  flowers  and  flowering  shrubs 
and  trees.  Its  houses  remain  in  the  memory  as  being 
all  white  with  red  roofs.  The  streets  between  are  hard 
and  smooth,  and,  leading  away  from  the  water,  they 
lose  themselves  in  banana  groves  and  cane  fields.  Here 
dwell  some  five  hundred  employees  of  the  Dumois  Nipe 
Company,  which  is  to  all  intents  arid  purposes  the  Du- 
mois family,  a  clan  that  acknowledges  an  admirable  char- 
acter, Don  Hipolito,  to  be  the  chief.  The  family  resi- 
dence, or  plantation  house,  overlooks  the  very  entrance 
to  Nipe  Bay.     From  its  verandas  one  views  the  sea,  now 


492  CUBA 

blue  and  placid,  now  gray  and  frothing  in  breakers  all 
along  the  coast  without ;  its  worst  humor  is  tamed  by 
the  time  it  has  arrived  through  the  narrow  channel  it 
must  thread  to  enter  and  become  the  bay,  which,  big 
as  an  inland  sea,  extends  westward  from  Saetia. 

The  Dumois  Company  owns  forty  thousand  acres  of 
land.  Its  principal  business  is  still  bananas,  six  hundred 
thousand  bunches  of  which  were  shipped  last  season 
from  the  six  thousand  acres  planted  ;  from  the  packing 
house  at  the  water's  edge  ten  thousand  boxes  of  grape 
fruit  went  forward,  and  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  boxes 
of  oranges.  This  by  no  means  represents  the  total  crop 
of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  citrus  fruit  trees 
now  mature ;  it  is  only  all  that  could  be  marketed  to  a 
profit.  Twenty  thousand  crates  of  pines  completed 
the  Dumois  fruit  crop  last  season..  The  company 
owns,  moreover,  a  thousand  acres  of  cane.  It  is  en- 
croaching upon  the  dank  bananas  and  the  overloaded 
orange  trees  which  crowd  each  other  for  footroom 
among  the  rocks  and  rich  soil  here,  whence,  in  all  prob- 
ability, it  will  in  time  expel  them  all,  until,  at  Saetia 
as  at  Boston,  full  acknowledgment  is  paid  to  the  fact 
that  in  Cuba  ^^cane  is  king.'^ 

Our  launch  made  fast  to  the  little  pier  at  Saetia. 
Here  the  currents  sweep  in,  in  such  fashion  that  it  is 
exceedingly  deep  water  at  the  very  edge  of  the  shore. 
We  trooped  up  the  promenade,  admiring  the  gardens 
beside  it,  to  the  plantation  house,  where  we  paid  our 
respects  to  Don  Hipolito  in  the  person  of  a  son,  who 
was  in  charge  during  his  absence.  Thence  we  made 
our  way  to  the  hotel,  where  immediately  he  joined  us 
and  ordered  to  be  brought  forth  everything  the  estab- 
lishment had  prepared  to  eat.  A  clean  cloth  was  laid 
upon  a  long  table  in  a  room  adjoining  the  main  dining 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTBICT  493 

room ;  napkins  and  glasses  appeared,  and  here  we  were 
served  in  embarrassing  profusion  with  the  best  avail- 
able. Dinner  over,  we  were  escorted  to  the  wharf,  and 
sent  aboard  a  tug  larger  than  our  launch  to  that  part 
of  the  plantation  known  as  Tres  Palmas,  where  we  were 
let  loose,  as  it  were,  among  the  king  orange  and 
tangerine  trees  thriving  promiscuously  among  the 
ragged  bananas,  with  permission  to  eat  and  carry  off 
what  we  would.  Assisted  by  the  boatmen  and  two  or 
three  other  employees  of  the  place,  who  entered  into 
our  marauding  humor,  we  filled  baskets  and  bags,  and 
gathered  bouquets  of  oranges,  —  cutting  whole  branches 
off  the  trees  (they  are  to  be  grubbed  out  eventually), 
which  were  bent  to  the  ground  and  split,  in  some 
crotches,  with  the  weight  of  their  thick-clustering, 
delicious  fruit.  Our  launch  fairly  staggered  back  to 
Preston  that  afternoon  under  its  cargo  of  loot. 

I  shall  not  forget  the  evening  of  my  first  arrival  at 
Felton,  the  next  stop  in  order  after  Saetia  on  Nipe 
Bay.  From  the  tug  which  had  taken  us  there  we 
walked  the  long  length  of  the  pier  thrown  out  from 
shore  near  the  electric  powerhouse.  To  the  immediate 
left  it  loomed,  funereal.  Down  a  road  beside  which 
ground  was  preparing  for  garden  plots  that  since  have 
bloomed  with  commendable  bravery,  we  approached 
the  hotel.  Sounds  reached  us  through  the  descending 
twilight  of  that  waning  Sabbath  day.  It  was  a  salu- 
tation and  an  assurance,  sung  stridently,  in  chorus, 
by  men  and  women  together.  ^^Hail!  Hail!'^  the 
greeting  rang,  extended  with  a  force  that  sent  it  far, 
^^Hail!  Hail!''  and  then  the  explanation,  ^^The 
gang's  all  here!"  There  was  a  crash  as  of  a  house 
demolished.  A  single  voice  inquired  raucously  :  ^^  What 
the  hail  do  we  care?"     And  echo  answered  ^^Wow!" 


494  CUBA 

We  had  indeed  arrived  in  a  mining  camp,  the  atmos- 
phere of  which  is  as  different  from  that  prevaihng  on 
the  neighboring  fruit  and  sugar  estates  as  is  the  very 
air  of  Felton,  heavy  with  smoke,  ore  dust,  and  coal, 
from  the  clean  and  fragrant  breezes  in  their  cane  fields 
and  their  orchards. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  the  hilarity  in  progress 
when  we  happened  along  was  a  baseball  game.  A  nine 
recruited  from  the  other  settlements  about  the  bay 
had  failed  to  appear  to  contest  honors.  The  Feltonites 
had  therefore  enjoyed  a  game  among  themselves,  and, 
at  the  day's  end,  had  awarded  their  own  best  team  the 
championship  of  the  Nipe  Bay  district  by  default  and 
by  acclamation,  —  most  especially  by  acclamation. 
A  modicum  of  beer  and  an  exhaustless  supply  of  animal 
spirits  inspired  the  group  on  the  veranda.  After 
supper  they  went  forth  for  a  boat  ride  by  moonlight. 
Although  there  was  no  extra  room,  they  invited  us  to 
accompany  them ;  had  we  accepted,  I  presume  they 
would  have  drawn  lots  to  decide  which  of  their  own 
number  must  have  remained  at  home.  Toward  mid- 
night they  returned,  as  quietly  as  they  knew  how. 
There  was  a  great  trampling  up  and  down  stairs  of 
heavy  boots,  the  sound  of  a  few  playful  thumps  and 
shovings,  a  smothered  laugh,  and  a  choked  whoopee. 
A  door  banged  viciously  in  an  unexpected  gust  of  wind. 
Every  particular  board  in  the  hallway  along  the  second 
.  floor  creaked  in  its  own  particular  key.  One  man, 
yawning  prodigiously,  was  heard  through  the  partitions 
of  all  the  rooms  in  his  vicinity.     Presently  he  snored. 

The  first  time  we  visited  Felton  accommodations  had 
been  reserved  for  us  in  advance.  The  second  time  we 
failed  to  take  that  precaution,  and  as  a  consequence,  on 
that  fateful  Sunday  night  when  we  staggered  into  the 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  495 

hotel  burdened  with  hand  baggage  there  was  no  one 
else  to  carry,  hot,  hungry,  tired,  and  disgusted,  the  clerk 
informed  us,  with  the  air  of  a  judge  pronouncing  sen- 
tence upon  incorrigible  delinquents,  that  he  had  no 
rooms  vacant,  didn't  expect  to  have  any,  and,  appar- 
ently, didn't  care.  We  inquired  if,  under  the  circum- 
stances, we  were  expected  to  rid  the  community  of  our 
presence  by  jumping  into  the  bay.  We  demanded  the 
superintendent,  and  were  informed  that  he  sat  outside 
upon  the  porch.  He,  then,  had  witnessed  our  arrival. 
We  appealed  to  him,  and  although  he  had  the  air  of 
considering  us  as  dangerous  as  dynamite,  he  stepped 
bravely  forward,  ordered  two  gentlemen  who  were  to 
leave  on  the  following  morning  exported  instead  that 
same  evening  to  Antilla,  where  they  might  pass  the 
night,  and  had  us  installed  in  the  room  they  vacated, 
which  is,  I  understood  later,  that  occupied  by  the  com- 
pany's president  when  he  visits  the  mines. 

Felton  has  no  traditions  regarding  hospitality  to 
maintain.  The  ^  Spanish- American  Iron  Company, 
which  owns  the  place,  honors  no  customs,  such,  for 
instance,  as  Boston  and  Preston  and  Saetia  have  in- 
herited from  days  when,  there  being  no  other  accommo- 
dations available,  travelers  accepted  entertainment 
the  planters  of  the  country  offered  with  generosity 
becoming  to  princes  of  the  soil.  Consequently  there 
is  no  guest  house  at  Felton,  nor  is  any  welcome  extended 
to  visitors.  The  hotel,  and  also  the  posada,  for  humbler 
patrons,  are  operated  for  the  benefit  of  employees,  to 
whom  their  rates  are  lower  than  to  transients. 

The  hotel  is  a  frame,  finished  within  in  shellacked 

pine.     It  is  well  furnished.     Its  bathrooms  are  supplied 

with  hot  water  that  is  hot,  and  with  cold  water;    its 

'  hot  showers  are  a  panacea  for  all  the  ^^ bites"  that  even 


496  CUBA 

the  most  fortunate  traveler  in  Cuba  is  sure  to  accu- 
mulate en  route.  The  building  is  lighted  with  elec- 
tricity. Table  and  service  in  the  dining  room  are 
surprisingly  good.     There  is  a  steam  laundry  near. 

Although  some  families,  as  well  as  ^Hhe  bachelors/' 
live  at  the  hotel,  most  employees  whose  wives  and 
children  are  with  them  are  accommodated  in  cottages, 
owned  by  the  company,  which  stand  in  a  double  row 
between  the  hotel  and  the  plant.  They  are  pleasant 
little  homes.  Distant  some  three  quarters  of  a  mile 
from  Felton  proper  is  ^Hhe  village, '^  where  in  barracks 
and  plain  frame  houses  the  workmen  employed  reside. 
When  first  we  walked  through  there,  open  ditches 
where  filthy  water  and  garbage  drifted  and  accumu- 
lated in  decaying  slime  filled  the  air  with  stench  ;  digging 
was  then  being  done  to  obtain  better  drainage,  and  I 
presume  conditions  have  been  improved. 

Near  the  village  the  railway  track  from  the  mines, 
above,  to  Felton,  splits  into  numerous  switches,  covering 
the  yards  and  making  accessible  to  engines  and  trains 
the  machine  shops,  near  the  powerhouse,  the  nodulizing 
plant,  and  all  the  equipment  subsidiary  thereto.^ 

The  electric  power  plant  consists  of  three  500  kilowat 
machines.  The  1600-horsepower  boilers  are  arranged 
in  two  batteries  of  two  each,  which  may  be  run  singly 
or  together.  An  automatic  stoker  and  an  automatic 
ash  conveyer  are  interesting  features.  This  plant  has 
the  capacity  to  handle  more  work  than  is  at  present 
required  of  it,  although  everything  that  can  be  so 
Q^^rated  js_nxoved  by  electricity  at  Felton. 

The  keynote  at  both  Woodfred  and  Felton  is  econ- 
omy in  men.  Tremendous  work  is  being  done  by  few 
hands,  thanks  to  extraordinary  devices  in  machinery. 

In  the  machine  shop,  —  the  largest  in  Cuba,  —  each 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  497 

machine  is  a  unit,  with  its  own  motor.  I  was  told  that 
it  had  been  necessary  to  train  young  men  to  handle 
these  machines ;  the  older,  experienced  men  were 
not  able  to  master  their  innovations,  and  were  appalled 
especially  by  their  speed.  Here  there  is  everything  at 
hand  to  repair  the  equipment  throughout,  to  erect 
locomotives  and  ore  cars  from  the  knockdown.  There 
is  a  powerful  moving  crane. 

The  nodulizing  plant  is  unique.  There  is  none  like 
it  elsewhere,  because  it  represents  a  special  treatment 
required  by  a  special  ore. 

This  ore  comes  down  by  the  trainload  from  Wood- 
fred,  on  the  summit  of  the  Finales  Mountains,  over  an 
intervening  distance  of  seventeen  miles.  To  the  foot 
of  the  range  the  track  lies,  like  any  well-conducted 
railroad,  along  a  rational  grade,  through  a  beautiful 
country.  We  rode  in  the  manager's  motor  car  in 
company  with  a  young  man  whose  work  was  on  the 
inclines,  and  Dr.  Schafer  of  the  Bronx  Botanical 
Gardens,  on  a  botanizing  expedition,  with  a  friend. 
He  was,  at  the  time,  making  his  headquarters  at  The 
Pines.  The  way  lies  close  to  the  Mayari  River  for 
some  distance,  and  finally  crosses  that  stream  by  way 
of  a  high  and  narrow  bridge.  The  natives  assembled 
to  see  that  bridge  come  tumbling  down  the  first  time 
a  train  crossed  it,  and  not  even  the  inclines  arouse  their 
astonishment  like  the  stability  of  that  great  structure 
of  steel  and  cement  spanning  the  historic  Mayari. 
The  ore  trains  that  thunder  across  it  are  the  only  rail- 
road trains  many  residents  in  the  valley  and  in  the  hills 
above  have  ever  seen. 

The  big  Baldwins  abandon  their  cars  in  the  yards  at 
Piedra  Gorda  at  the  base  of  the  Pifiales.  Switching 
here  is  done  by  gravity. 


498  CUBA 

Out  of  Piedra  Gorda  the  tracks  leap  up  the  mountain- 
side on  a  25  per  cent  incHne  2000  feet  long;  the  lift 
is  500  feet.  The  ore  cars  (each  weighs,  empty,  45,250 
pounds)  are  shunted  over  a  trestle  from  below  which 
emerges  the  '' barney ^^  car,  resembling  nothing  else 
so  much  as  a  field  gun.  Pushed  before  it  the  ore  cars 
ascend  smoothly,  one  by  one.  The  '^barney''  car 
and  the  ore  car  with  it  are  drawn  uphill  by  a  wire  cable 
which  is  21  inches  i^  diameter  on  the  lower  incline 
and  2 1  inches  in  diameter  on  the  upper  one.  It  stands 
the  strain  of  180  tons  of  ore  plus  two  cars,  each  trip. 

The  second  incline  is  7600  feet  long,  nearly  all  on  the 
maximum  grade  of  25  per  cent.  Its  lift  is  1120  feet. 
Only  one  incline  in  the  world  —  it  is  in  South  America 
—  is  longer  than  this ;   and  the  grade  of  that  is  low. 

Engineers  are  interested  in  two  bridges  on  these 
inclines  :  one,  at  the  foot  of  the  lower  incline,  on  a  25  per 
cent  vertical  curve,  and  the  other,  200  feet  long,  on 
a  25  per  cent  grade,  on  the  upper  incline. 

The  inclines  are  operated  by  two  steam  power  plants, 
300-horsepower  boilers,  engines  with  22-inch  cylinders 
that  turn  28-foot  drums  around  which  the  cables  wind 
and  unwind.  No  one  at  the  mine  wastes  time  to  con- 
sider what  would  be  the  result  were  anything  to  go 
seriously  wrong  with  these  plants,  or,  especially,  with 
the  cables  that  control  the  cars.  Each  car,  loaded,  is 
a  weight  of  157,750  pounds,  which,  were  it  suddenly  re- 
leased to  race  down  9600  feet  of  25  per  cent  incline,  would 
work  havoc  en  route  and  at  the  bottom,  if  it  arrived 
there,  difficult  to  over-imagine.  No  such  accident  is, 
however,  likely  to  occur.  The  signal  men  who  start 
and  stop  the  cars  on  a  system  of  red  flag  wigwagging, 
and  the  men  who  operate  the  machinery  at  their  dicta- 
tion, appreciate  their  responsibility. 


THE    NIPE    BAY    DISTRICT  499 

The  day  we  came  safely  down  the  mountainside  on 
an  ore  car  that  traveled  softly  as  an  ambulance,  2250 
tons  of  ore  made  the  trip  without  a  hitch.  Full 
capacity  of  the  inclines  is  10,000  tons  per  diem.  At 
even  this  rate  the  deposits  at  Woodfred  will  outlast 
seven  centuries. 

At  the  top  of  the  upper  incline  a  locomotive  seizes 
upon  the  car  that  has  ascended,  and  hustles  it 
away,  around  curves  and  up  grades,  to  the  mines 
themselves. 

Work  at  the  mines  resembles  a  big  job  of  railroad 
grading  far  more  than  it  does  mining  as  mining  is 
done,  for  instance,  in  the  hard  rock  mountains  above 
the  Colorado  camp  where  I  was  raised.  The  iron 
deposit  here  covers  the  surface  over  an  area  of  more 
than  40  square  miles ;  it  is  22  miles  at  its  longest  and 
16  miles  at  its  widest  part.  The  depth  varies  from 
35  feet  maximum  to  12  feet  minimum,  yet  tapped, 
the  average  being  about  18  feet.  The  ore  is  in  places 
58  per  cent  iron ;  nothing  under  42  per  cent  is  mined. 
The  average  assay  is  46  or  47  per  cent.  There 
is  10  of  1  per  cent  nickel.  Steam  shovels  and  drag  line 
machines  are  very  busy  scooping  the  ore  into  waiting 
cars.  The  steam  shovel  lifts  five  tons  at  a  scoop,  and 
the  exertion  costs  fifteen  cents.  The  drag  line 
machines  (long-armed  houses  swung  on  a  pivot !) 
dig  ore  from  between  rocks  at  a  cost  of  seven  or 
eight  cents  a  ton.  In  consistency  the  ore  runs  from 
clay  to  gravel ;  in  color,  from  yellow  to  a  brown  that 
is  almost  black. 

At  Woodfred  is  The  Pines,  even  handsomer  than  the 
hotel  at  Felton.  Here,  when  we  had  the  pleasure  of 
visiting  the  summit,  young  men  employed  on  the 
inclines  had  a  mess.     It  had  all  the  enjoyable  features 


500  CUBA 

of  a  club,  or  fraternity.  Hospitality  certainly  was 
here.  It  thrived  in  the  light  of  the  open  fireplace 
(the  only  built-for-use  and  used  fireplace  I  have  met 
in  Cuba)  to  tunes  both  classic  and  ^^raggy''  that  the 
phonograph  ground  out  in  the  twilight  and  long  into  the 
nightj  while  the  stars  came  out  above,  and  far  below 
very  similar  twinkling  lights  appeared  to  mark  the  sites 
of  Felton,  Saetia,  Preston,  Antilla,  and,  away  over  at 
Banes,  Boston,  grinding  busily  in  the  glare  of  her 
blue-white  arc  lamps. 

Close  by  the  hotel  employees  whose  families  accom- 
pany them  even  to  this  mountain  top  are  at  home  in 
cottages.  Never  was  a  dwelling  place  nearer  ideal,  — 
high,  dry,  and  cool,  among  pine  trees,  with  an  incom- 
parable outlook,   and  company  enough. 

The  summit  is,  naturally,  salubrious,  and  here  the 
company  is  erecting  its  hospital.  Beside  it,  with  irri- 
gation from  a  sizable  nozzle,  an  industrious  Spaniard 
had,  when  we  were  there,  a  truck  and  flower  garden 
it  was  a  delight  to  see.  The  fertility  of  the  ore  was 
evident,  since  the  garden  soil  was  as  good  ore  as  that 
sent  to  the  kilns. 

From  the  veranda  of  The  Pines,  then,  one  oversees, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  mining  of  the  ore ;  on  the  other, 
one  looks  down  upon  its  wonderful  route  of  transpor- 
tation to  Felton.  Lowered  safely  to  Piedra  Gorda  one 
at  a  time,  the  ore  cars  are  there  made  into  long  ore 
trains  which  the  locomotives  drag,  thundering  along, 
to  the  nodulizing  plant.  Shunted  to  proper  position 
beside  it,  there  at  Felton,  each  car  receives  in  turn  the 
attention  of  the  unloader. 

The  unloader  is  operated  by  a  75-horsepower  motor, 
the  force  of  which  is  transmitted  through  gears  that 
increase    strength    at    the    expense   of    speed.     Two 


THE    NIPE    BAY   DISTRICT  501 

gantries  do  the  tipping.  Each  car  is  Hfted  by  a  lever 
which  raises  the  back,  the  front  meanwhile  resting  on 
a  casting  on  the  concrete  wall  of  the  ore  yard  into 
which  the  load  is  poured.  One  man,  in  a  cage  swung 
high,  controls  this  entire  operation. 

From  that  cage  this  same  man  steps  into  a  trolley 
and  operates  a  seven-ton  grab  bucket,  which  the  trolley 
lifts,  carries  forward,  and  empties  into  the  bins. 

From  the  bins  the  ore  is  scraped,  automatically,  into 
kilns  fed  with  coal  dust,  through  which  long  cylinders 
it  passes  as  they  revolve  slowly.  The  highest  tempera- 
ture in  the  kilns  is  2400  degrees.  Such  heat  removes 
free  water,  crystallized  water,  and  some  impurities, 
thereby  lessening  bulk  and  weight.  The  ore  emerges 
in  pellets  about  the  size,  weight,  and  color  of  buckshot ; 
in  this  form  it  is  most  acceptable  to  blast  furnaces  of 
northern  steel  works  and  iron  foundries,  toward  which 
it  travels  in  steamers  that  draw  up  at  the  docks  to 
receive  it.  These  same  ships  bring  down,  as  their 
cargo,  coal  needed  by  the  plant.  In  unloading  the  fuel 
and  in  preparing  and  conveying  it  to  the  kilns,  and  also 
in  loading  the  ore  into  the  ships,  every  economy  is 
practiced  in  that  the  machinery  is  of  latest  patent,  cal- 
culated to  save  both  time  and  labor. 

I  think  that  if  I  were  bound  to  leave  Cuba  finally, 
not  to  return,  I  should  prefer  to  go  out  by  way  of  Nipe 
Bay,  for  then,  looking  back  across  the  country,  I 
should  see  the  island  not  only  as  it  has  been,  —  inter- 
esting in  the  romance  of  its  discovery  and  conquest,  in 
the  melodrama  of  its  buccaneer  days,  in  the  tragedy 
of  its  modern  history,  even  in  the  burlesque  of  its  latest 
revolution,  —  and,  moreover,  as  it  is  this  hour,  —  a 
puzzling  anomaly  in  politics  and  economics,  a  desper- 


502  CUBA 

ate  problem  in  sociology  and  morals,  —  but,  also,  I 
should  see  it,  thanks  to  the  prescience  they  develop  who 
consider  the  Nipe  Bay  district,  as  it  is  to  be,  when  the 
flood  tide  of  prosperity  attendant  on  the  intelligent 
investment  and  management  of  foreign  capital  here 
shall  have  swept  away  all  the  anachronisms  and  all 
the  subterfuges  which,  by  embalming  a  dead  past 
through  a  live  present,  succeed  in  preserving  yet  un- 
pleasant and  hampering  souvenirs  of  eras  and  regimes 
censurably  reluctant  to  bury  themselves  and  theirs. 
In  that  future  will  survive  little,  probably,  of  the 
confused  Cuba  I  have  described :  modern  improve- 
ments are  removing  much  that  is  picturesque  in  the 
cities;  in  the  country,  tobacco  vegas  and  cane  fields 
cover  battle  fields,  and  ancient  walls  and  fortifications 
are  demolished  to  make  roads.  The  present  form  of 
the  island^s  government  wavers  in  vicissitude.  Cus- 
toms peculiarly  Cuba's  own  are  very  scarce.  The 
language  Cubans  speak  is  invaded  by  an  increasing 
host  of  half-naturalized  words  and  phrases.  The  pop- 
ulation war  suddenly  released  from  colonial  conditions 
has  not  found  itself  as  a  Cuban  people  or  constituted  a 
nation  with  an  identity  of  its  own. 

In  short,  here,  five  centuries  after  the  first  settle- 
ment by  Caucasians,  in  a  land  where  there  are  cities, 
railroads,  and  considerable  modern  agricultural  devel- 
opment in  isolated  localities,  frontier  conditions  do 
strangely  outlast  their  time  and  place.  The  situa- 
tion in  Cuba  to-day  is  extraordinary.  It  constitutes, 
therefore,  a  rare  opportunity  for  pioneers,  and  they  are 
already  here  making  the  most  of  it.  They  are  not, 
however,  the  pioneer  type  of  which  we  read,  for  they 
are  matched  against  odds  which  require  another  equip- 
ment than  their  storied  predecessors  elsewhere  have 


THE   NIPE   BAT   DISTRICT  603 

carried.  Because  he  wears  no  coonskin  cap  he  is  not 
the  less  a  pioneer  who  invents  a  special  treatment  for 
magnetic  ores  which  gives  high  value  to  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  acres  of  iron  deposits  in  Cuba,  long 
known  but  considered  worthless  prior  to  his  invention ; 
because  he  carries  no  squirrel  rifle  he  is  not  barred 
from  the  same  class  who  patents  a  process  of  treating 
cane  which  increases  rendition  and  preserves  a  value 
to  bagasse ;  because  he  fights  not  Indians  but  bibijagua 
ants  the  man  who  develops  a  citrus  fruit  grove  loses 
no  standing  as  a  real  frontiersman.  Those  others 
who  carved  the  American  Union  out  of  the  wilderness 
of  North  America,  wiping  Death^s  Valley  and  the 
Great  American  Desert  off  the  map,  have  attained  the 
stability  of  statehood  and  the  prosperity  government 
irrigation  fetches;  they  who  labor  now  in  Cuba  are 
striving  toward  the  same  ends,  to  give  final  shape  to 
that  which  they  have  taken  in  hand.  Arrayed  against 
them  are  the  rigors  of  a  southern,  not  a  northern,  cli- 
mate; and  the  dangers  of  contact  with  decadent,  not 
savage,  contestants  with  them  for  control. 

It  is,  if  one  will  but  observe  it,  a  fine  and  bitter  fight, 
this  that  is  being  waged  in  Cuba  to-day.  No  one  who 
surveys  the  field  can  remain  nonpartisan;  for  my 
part,  when  I  looked  down  from  The  Pines  at  Woodfred 
over  Nipe  Bay  and  Banes,  doubts  I  had  entertained  at 
previous  times  were  dissipated,  for  there  I  recognized 
the  strong  intrenchment  of  victorious  invaders.  At 
tremendous  cost,  but  surely,  they  will  triumph ;  and 
at  the  sacrifice  of  much  that  is  worthy ,^^  itself,  of  a 
fairer  fate,  they  will  erect  out  of  ruin  and  dec^  a  fabric 
worthy  them.  All  that  the  defeated  lose  in  w^  con- 
test will  be  well  lost,  —  though  it  be  landmark\^the 
fame  heroes  have  earned,  office,  native  tongue,  and\he 


504  CUBA 

fiction  of  national  identity  ;  all  that  the  victors  pay  will 
be  well  invested,  though  it  be,  as  it  must  be,  the  honor, 
the  happiness,  the  cherished  fortune,  and  the  life  itself 
of  many  and  many  a  private  soldier  enlisted  in  the 
ranks. 


INDEX 


Aborigines,  of  Cuba,  83-87,  434-435. 
Of  the  Isle  of  Pines,   294,   313- 
316. 

Acosta,  Captain,  367. 

D.  Andres,  y  Duarte,  296,    299, 
304,  305,  311. 

Administration,  American  Provi- 
sional, 183-186. 

Africans  (see  also  Negroes,  Black, 
etc.).  Colony  of,  147. 

Aguas  Claras,  438.  * 

Aguirre,  Cabo  de,  216. 
Don  Antonio  de,  216. 

Albear,  Engineer,  17. 
Square,  17. 

Allen,  J.  G.,  439. 

Alonso,  Julian,  Steamer,  208-210. 

Alquizar,  240,  247. 

Alto  Cedro,  467. 

Alvarez,  P.  Fr.  Paulino,  378. 

American    failure    to    resist     Cuban 
conditions,  441-444. 
Responsibility  for  Cuban   affairs, 

167-168,  190-193. 
Settlers  in    Cuba,    150-163,    231, 
279-336,411-463,    466,    501- 
504. 

Americans,  Cuban  desire  for  return 
of,  133,  190,  201-202. 
Life  of,  in  Havana,  151-163. 

Andrade,  Secretary  Freyre  de,  173- 
174. 

Annexation  (see  also  Economic  Prob- 
lems, Tariff,  etc.),  Cuban  at- 
titude toward,  190,  201-202. 

Antilla,  440,  464,  475-478. 

Artemisa,  240,  247. 

Asylum,  Beneficencia  Orphan,  37. 
Right  of,  40. 

Atalaya,  La,  340-346. 


Azanza,  Senor  Viceroy  Don  Miguel 
Jose,  216. 

B 

Bacardi,  359,  361. 

Baga,  342-343. 

Bahia  Honda,  208,  209,  210,  213. 

Baire,  446. 

Baker,  C.  F.,  228. 

Balls,  70-71. 

Banes,  348,  349,  350,  467,  468-475. 

Banos,  San   Diego  de  los,  225,  255- 
260,  265. 

Baracoa,  348-349. 
Estero  de,  207. 

Bartle,  418-421. 

Batabano,  217,  280,  385. 

Earliest  site  of  Havana,  3. 

Bathing,  at  La  Play  a,  Marianao,  49. 

Battery,  Reina,  37. 
Santa  Clara,  37. 

Bayamo,    354,    356,    376,    383,    401, 
446,  447. 

Bayate,  456-458. 

Bayona  Villanueva,  357. 

Belen,  church,   school,  and  observa- 
tory, 40-41. 

Beneficencia  Orphan  Asylum,  37. 

Bibijagua  Point,  286,  325,  326. 

Biddle,  "Nick,"  war  correspondent, 
176-177,  179,  320. 

Black    blood,   intermixture    of,   with 
white,  83,  87-97. 
Colonel    William    M.,    250,    253, 
368-369. 

Blain,  Don  Jose,  229. 

Bobadilla,  Lady  Isabel  de,  29. 

Boston,  Central,  464,  465,  468-475. 

Botany,  of  Cuba,  228. 

Brazo  Fuerte,  288-289,  294,  326. 

Brooks,  Lt.,  189. 

Brown,  Charles,  282. 


505 


506 


INDEX 


Bryan,    William    Jennings,    at    San- 
tiago, 372. 
"Bryant,  Mr.,  Prize  Master,"  30-33. 
Buccaneers,  see  Pirates. 
Burton,  Mr.,  424. 


Caballeria  Wharf,  54. 
Caballos  Mountain,  286-289. 

Paso,  384. 
Cabanas  (see  also  Castle)  nine  o'clock 
gun,  74. 

Reveille  from  ramparts  of,  56. 

Salutes  from,  78. 

Taps,  74. 
Cabanas  Bay,  208-209,  210. 

Battle  of,  212. 
Cabildo,  an  African,  147-148. 
Cacocum,  431-440. 
Caibarien,  395. 
Caimaneros,   of   Isle   of  Pines,   283- 

286,  301-302. 
Caleta  Grande,  283. 
Camaguey,   City  of,   340,   341,   342, 
354,  378,  401-409. 

Churches  of,  406-408. 

Hotels  of,  408-409. 
Camaguey,    Province    of,    269,    376, 
396-410. 

Arrogance  of,  405. 

Cattle  industry  in,  405,  409-410. 

Gold  in,  437. 

"Whitest  Province,"  410. 
Camajuani,  395. 
Campbell,  Angus,  440. 
Campo,  Sebastian  de,  5,  215. 
Canada  Mountains,  286,  328. 
Canadians   in    Cuba,    see   American 

Settlers. 
Candelaria,  240,  245,  247. 
Caney,  El,  363-365. 
Caribbean  Sea,  215,  384,  446. 
Caribes,  86. 

Carnival  Sunday  in  Havana,  79. 
"Cartroads,  the,  of  Magoon,"   250- 

267. 
Casas,  Fray  Bartolome  de  las,  349, 
375-378,  434,  471. 

Luis  de  las,  299. 

Mountain,  286-287,  290. 


Casilda,  384. 

Castle,  Atares,  28,  37. 

Cabanas,  27-28,  337. 

Morro,  1,  25-27,  337  ;  at  Santiago 
de  Cuba,  352-353,  356,  357. 

Principe,  34. 

San  Salvador  of  the  Point,  33. 
Castro,  Manuel  Fernandez  de,  437. 
Casualidad  Mine,  438. 
Cathedral,  at  Havana,  37-38. 
Bells  of,  52. 

Santiago  de  Cuba,  370. 
Cauto  River,  446. 
Cemetery,  Colon,  41-42. 

Of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  366-367. 
Census,  foreign  population  according 

to,  134-135. 
Cepero,  Dona  Maria  de,  12. 
Cervera,  Admiral,  353. 
Cerro,  49. 

Cespedes,  Carlos  Manuel  de,  367. 
Chaparra,  181,  347,  435. 
Children,  Cubans'  love  of,  102-103. 
Chinese,  Colony  of,  146. 
Chorrera,  fortlet,  37. 
Chueaux,  M.,  287-288. 
Church  (see  also  Cathedral  and  Con- 
vent), Belen,  40. 

Cristo,  39. 

Interesting  services,  41. 

La  Merced,  39. 

Of  the  Holy  Angel,  39. 
Ciego  de  Avila,  399. 
Cienfuegos,  375,  385,  386-389. 
Cimarrones,  Negros,  222. 
Citrus  Fruit,  245,  310,  411-463. 
Clerks     of     Commerce     Clubhouse, 

71. 
Club,  American,  162. 

Centro  Asturiano,  71. 

Clerks  of  Commerce,  71. 

German,  161. 

Spanish  Casino,  71. 

Yacht,  162. 
Coasts,  of  Cuba,   207-220,  335-351, 
383-401. 

South,  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  280- 
286,  300. 
Cobre,  Mines  at,  373. 

Village  of,  373. 

Virgen  del,  373-382. 


INDEX 


507 


Cojimar,  fortlet,  37. 

Suburb  of,  49. 
Coloma,  263. 
Colombo  Point  and  Bay,   286,   288, 

325,  326. 
Colonies,  Foreign,  size  of,  134-135. 

Of  Oriente,  411-463. 
Colonists    (see    American    Settlers), 
ignorance  of,  415-417. 
vs.  Company  (Land),  411-416. 
Columbia  (Isle  of  Pines),  327. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  37,  279,  293, 
325,  326,  327,  349,  471. 
Straits  of,  383. 
Commission,    American    Peace,    see 

Taft. 
Company  (Land)  vs.  Colonists,  411- 

i|     416. 
Consolacion  del  Sur,  241,  245,  260. 
Contramaestra  Valley,  447. 
Convent,  Dominican,  38. 
Franciscan,  38. 
Santa  Catalina,  39. 
Corn,   crops  and  preservation,   461- 

462. 
Corsairs,  see  Pirates. 
Cortes,  Hernando,  217,  348,  353,  355. 

Puerto,  217. 
Country  Homes,  Life  in,  125-133. 
Crittenden    of    Kentucky    (see    also 

Lopez),  37. 
Crops    (see    Sugar,    Tobacco,    Pine- 
apples,   Citrus    Fruit),    little 
diversification,  236. 
Cuban    Inability    to    comprehend    a 

Republic,  171,  186-188. 
Cuba  Libre,  a  Farce,  164-193. 

American  championship  of,   167- 

168. 
Not  edible  or  wearable,  203-206. 
Cueyba,  376,  377,  378,  379,  380. 
Cumberland,  Town  of,  359. 
Cunagua,  La,  327. 

Customs  Duties,   166,  198-199,  309- 
310. 
Of  Cuba,  61,  96,  98-133. 

D 

Daguilla  Mountains,  286. 
Daiquiri,  353. 


Dautrive,  Mr.,  477. 
"Dead  Line,"  the,  28. 
Delgado,   Lt.-Col.    Clemente,   y  Es- 
paiia,  303-306. 

Martin  Morua,  93. 
Denver,  the  Cruiser,  180. 
"Dependents,"  135-138. 
Diario  de  la  Marina,  116,  139-145. 
Ditch,  Laurel,  28. 
Drake's   Attack    on    Isle    of    Pines, 

294. 
Duarte,  D.  Domingo,  296. 

D.  Francisco  Javier,  296. 

D.  Nicolas,  296. 
Dumois,  the.  Family,  491. 

-Nipe  Company,  466,  491-492. 

Station,  467,  475. 

E 

Earthquake    at    Santiago    de    Cuba, 

356,  357. 
Economic  Problems,  194-206. 
Embarcadero  de  Banes,  470. 
English,   the,   in    Cuba,    16,   26,   38, 

356,  357,    358,    359,  392-393, 

487-491. 
Escobar,  artist,  13. 
Esperanza,  263. 
Expense  of  living,  in  Cuba,  153. 


Family,  Typical  Cuban,  99-101,  108- 

122. 
"Famine  in  Vuelta  Abajo,"  236,  341. 
Faults,  Cuban,  95-97,  123-125. 
Felton,  466,  481,  493-501. 
Ferrara,  Orestes,  178. 
Fisher,  Mr.,  425. 

Fonts  Sterling,  Ernesto,  188-189. 
Foreigners,  importance  of,  to  Cuban 

government,  164-166. 
In  Cuba,  134-163. 
Ownership  of,  in  island,  164-166. 
Forts,  see  Castle. 
Franco,  D.  Dionisio,  297. 
Fuerza,  La,  29-30. 
Funeral  Ceremonies,  44-48. 
Funston,    General    Frederick,     184- 

185. 


608 


INDEX 


G 

Garcia,  Calixto,  42,  423. 

Gardens,  Botanical,  48. 
Of  the  Queen,  294,  384. 

Gates,  City,  of  Havana,  34. 

Gelabert,  M.,  296. 

Geology,  of  the  Isle  of  Pines,  286- 
290. 

Gibara,  346-347,  439,  445. 

Gold  in  Cuba,  433-439. 

Gomez,  General  Jose  Miguel,  Presi- 
dent, 94,  186,  269. 

Gomez,  General  Maximo,  42,  78. 

Gomez,  Juan  Gualberto,  94,  186. 

Gottschalk,  370. 

Government    (see    also    Administra- 
tion),   American    Military,    of 
Cuba,  170. 
Excessive  cost  of,  166-167. 

Grey,  W.  G.,  438. 

Grijalva,   Departure  from    Santiago, 
353. 

Guana,  419. 

Guanabacoa,  49. 

Guanajay,  49-50. 

Guane,  242,  261,  262,  274. 

Guanimar,  Embarcadero  de,  207. 

Guerra,   General   "Pino,"    173,    177, 
253,  269. 

Guira,  240. 

Guirabo,  440. 

H 

Hansen,   the.   Residence  on    Canada 

Tract,  328. 
Harty,  Harold,  467. 
Hatuey,  Cacique,  434. 
Havana,  City  of.  Daily  Life  in,  52-82. 

Earliest  site  of,  3-4. 

Early  appearance  of,  5-7. 

Founding  of,  3. 

Immorality  of,  95-97,  138. 

Original  name  of  present  site,  5. 

Reason  for  full  name  of,  3. 

Statuette  of,  30. 

Streets  of,  reasons  for  names,  14- 
17. 

The  "Old  City"  of,  8-10. 
Heredia,  Poet,  370. 
Herradura,  255,  260. 


Higgenson,  Mr.,  of  Boston,  365. 

Hojeda,  Alonso  de,  373,  378. 

Holguin,  347,  431-438. 

Holladay,  Consul  Ross,  372. 

Home  Life,  98-133. 

Horse,  "Dock-Tailed,  Deal,"  184. 

Hotels  in  Havana,  152. 

Houses,  Boarding,  of  Havana,   151- 

153. 
House,  School,  handsomest  in  Cuba, 

365. 
House,  typical,  98-133,  157-159. 
Huston,  the  T.  L.,  Company,  262. 


Ibarra,  Don  Carlos  de,  212. 
Indian,    Aboriginal,   population,    83- 
87,  294,  313-316. 
Persistence  of  blood,  86-87. 
Resistance    of,    in    Oriente,    434- 
435. 
Instruments,  Musical,  360. 
"Invasion,  The,"  170,  226,  269. 
Isabela  de  Sagua,  394. 
Isle  of  Pines,  The,  279-336. 

American   Invasion   of,    319-320. 

322. 
As  a  Health  Resort,  317-318. 
Business    and    Social    Organiza- 
tions, 332. 
Cuban  Consideration  of,  324. 
Early  Owners,  296,  298. 
Early  Governors  and  Settlement, 

295-296. 
Estimated  Area,  280. 
Flora  and  Fauna,  290-293. 
Future  of,  335. 

Land  Companies  in,  324-325. 
Population,  299. 
Relations      between      "Natives" 

and  "Yanquis,"  323-324. 
Relationship  to  Cuba,  308-310. 
Reputation  for  Turbulence,  298- 

299. 
Rivers  of,  291. 
'  *  RR-r-rousing   RR-r-revolution ' ' 

in,  320. 
Salubrity  of  Climate,  313-318. 
Slow  Development  of,  296-305. 
Social  Atmosphere  of,  329. 


INDEX 


509 


status  of,  321. 
Temperature  of,  317. 
Topography    of     northern    part, 

286,  290. 
Towns  of,  305-306,  310-312,  325- 

328. 
Visits  of  "Special  Agents,"  333. 


Jai  Alai,  68. 

Jesus  del  Monte,  8,  40,  49. 

"Jobs,"  Supreme  Importance  of,  167, 

172,  185-186,  200. 
Jols,  Cornelius,  Admiral  and  Pirate, 

211,  294. 
Jucaro,  400. 
Julia,   the  Herrera  Liner,   337,   338, 

342,  346,  350,  352,  353,  367. 
Jungle,  282,  428-430. 

K 

Karutz,  Dr.  Paul,  471,  475. 
Keenan,  T.  J.,  289. 
Key-View-by-the-Sea,  319,  326-327. 
Kies,  Captain,  426. 
Kobler,  Mr.,  454. 


Labadia,  Dr.  D.  Jose,  304. 

Land  Companies,  231,  245-246,  324- 

325,  411-416. 
Lanier,  Lt.  D.  Alejo  Helvecio,  304. 
.  Legends  and  Tales,  216,  218,  222-223, 

234,  313,  316,  373-382. 
"Legion,  the  Foreign,"  178. 
"Living  in,"  135-138. 
Lopez,  the.  Expedition,  28,  269. 
Los  Indios,  Origin  of  Name,  294. 
River,  282. 

Settlement,  281, 285,  293,  327-328. 
Lucayos,  86. 
Lucha,  La,  146,  175. 
Luz  Hernandez,  Dr.  Jose  de  la,   312, 
318. 

M 

Maceo,  Antonio,  95,  226,  241,  269. 
Magoon,  Governor,  72,  183-186,.  191, 
250,  269. 


Maine,  Burial  Place  of  Victims  of,  43. 

Theories  concerning  Wrecking  of, 
169. 

Wrecking  of,  Fortunate  for  Cuba, 
169. 
Marble,  in  Isle  of  Pines,  287-290. 
Marianao,  49. 
Majana,  207,  240. 
Mantua,  242,  261,  274,  437. 
Manzanillo,  383,  446-447. 
Mariel,  207,  208,  209. 
Market,     Cuban    Demand    for    the 
American,  194-206. 

Fish,  54-55. 

The,  of  Havana,  57. 
Marriage,  101-102. 
Marti,  Jose,  Grave  of,  367,  368. 

Statue  of,  20-21. 
Martial,  Satirist,  on  Havana,  58-59. 
Martyrs  of  1871,  42-43. 
Marx,  Luis,  Estates  at  Alquizar,  240. 
Matteson,  Mr.,  426. 
Mayabe,  444-445. 
Mayari,  465,  478-480. 
McKinley,  Isle  of  Pines  Settlement, 
293,  319,  325. 

President  William,  192. 
McLane,  Captain,  310. 
Meals,  hours  of,  110-111. 
Mejor  Mine,  438. 

Menocal,  General  Mario,  181,  186. 
Merrimac,  Hobson's,  353. 
Military      Government       (see      also 
Wood),    American,  of    Cuba, 
170,  370. 
Miramar,  Hotel,  22,  81,  162-163. 
Money,  Variety  of,  in  circulation,  67. 
Morales,  Don  Pedro  de,  356. 
Morgan,  Sir  Henry,  294,  404. 
Moron,  400. 
Mountains,  of  Isle  of  Pines,  286-290. 

Organo,  221-234. 


N 


Nanigo  Clans,  149-150. 
Narvaez,  Panfilo  de,  348,  402. 
"Natives,"  negroid,  83,  87-97. 
Negroes,  African,  customs  of,  147-150. 

Prominent,  93-95. 

Relations  with  Whites,  90-97. 


610 


INDEX 


Newspapers,  Social  Reporters,  72. 

Venders  of,  58. 
Nipe,  348,  349,    350,  369,    379,  380, 

464-504. 
"Noncombatants,"  124-125. 
Nueva  Gerona,  306-308. 
Nuevitas,  339,  350,  403. 


O 


Obispo  (see  Street),  origin  of  name, 
14. 

Shopping  on,  63. 
Ocean  Beach,  214,  242-244. 
Odoardo     Grand-Pre,     D.     Hipolito, 

302-303. 
O'Donnell,  Captain-General,  25,  288. 
Omaja,  430. 
O'Reilly,  General  Alejandro,  16. 

Origin  of  name  of  street,  16. 
"Organos,  Holes  in,"  224-226.. 

Mountains,  213,  221-237. 

Principal  peaks  of,  214. 
Orr  Brothers,  232,  246. 
Oseta,  Juan  de  Villaverde,  356. 
Oviedo,  historian,  375,  378. 


Palace,  the,  of  Havana,  5,  11. 
Palacios,  Los,  240,  247,  255. 
Palenques,  222. 

Palma,  President  Tomas  Estrada,  93, 
170,172, 182-183,185,367-368. 
Palmarito,  459-463. 
Palma  Soriano,  446,  448-449. 
Parks,  of  Havana,  18. 

Campo  Marte,  19. 

Central,  18,  20-24. 

Colon,  19. 

La  India,  19. 
Parties,  Political,  172-173,  186. 
Paso  Estancia,  446,  451-456. 
Paso  Real,  241,  247,  255. 
Paternalism,  survival  of,  141-142. 
Patti,  debut  at  Santiago,  370. 
Pedernales,  438,  440-444. 
Pedroso,  Captain  Hernando,  296. 
People  in  Cuba,  83-97. 
Perez,  D.  J.  M.,  359. 
Perpetua,  battle  off  Point,  216. 


Perpiiia,  Father   Antonio,    342,    343, 

344. 
Pets,  Cuban  love  of,  120. 
Pinales,  the  Mountains,  464,  497. 
Pinar  del   Rio,   City.   241,   260-261, 

263. 
Pinar  del  Rio,  Province  of,  207-278. 

Boundaries  of,  207-208. 

Good  Roads  in,  250-267. 

Coasts  of,  209-220. 

Opening  Opportunities  in,  249. 

Peaceful,  268-269. 

Physical  Characteristics  of,  221- 
237. 

Towns  of,  234,  238-244. 

Trip  through,  238-244. 

Water  courses,  232. 
Pineapples,  165,  240,  247. 
Pioneers,  see  American  Settlers. 
Pirates,  211,  220,  272-273,  295,  297, 

313,  359,  356,  404. 
Placetas,  395. 
Plaza  de  Armas,  5,  11. 

De  San  Francisco,  38. 

Monserrate,  17. 

The,  at   Santiago   de   Cuba,   355, 
370,  371. 
Poey,  Cuban  scientist,  291. 
Political  divisions  of  Cuba,  165. 
Population,  83,  134-135. 
Porcallo  de  Figueroa,  Vasco,  401    403. 
Prado,  the,  at  Havana,  19-20. 

Upper,  19. 
Preston,  Central,  465,  481-487. 
Principe,  48. 

Privateers  (see  also  Pirates),  Colom- 
bian, 269. 
Processions,  Religious,  15,  360. 
Puerto  Padre,  433. 
Puerto  Principe,  see  Camaguey. 

Q 

Queen,  Gardens  of  the,  294,  384. 
Queen  of  the  Angels,  385. 


Race  conflict  and  feeling,  90-95. 
RaUroad,  the    Cuba,  354,  383,    396, 
446,  464,  466,  471. 


INDEX 


611 


Railway,    the    Cuban    Central,    179, 

389. 
The  Western,  of  Havana,  37,  177, 

234-235,  239. 
Ramirez,    Chaplain    D.    Bernardino, 

374,  378. 
Rancho  Boyeros,  247. 
Rangel,  Villa,  227-231. 
Reefs,  the  Colorado,    208,    210,    211, 

213. 
Regla,  49. 
Religion,  evidences  of  lack  of,   117- 

118. 
Republic,    the     Cuban,    reasons    for 

failure    of,   164-167,    170-174. 
Rey,  Vara  de,  365. 
Rivero,  D.  Nicolas,  140-141. 
Roads,  good,  in   the  island,  250-267, 

368-369,  446. 
Rolston,  Mr.,  449. 
Roosevelt,  President  Theodore,  180, 

204,  365. 
Rosado,  Francisco,  352,  364. 


Saetia,  466,  478,  479,  491-493. 

Sagua  la  Grande,  392,  393. 

Salaries,  153. 

San  Antonio,  Cape,  215. 

Sancti  Spiritus,  397-398,  401. 

San  Cristobal,  240,  245,  247,  254,  255, 

Sandflies,  292-293. 

San  Diego  de  los  Baiios,  225,    255- 

260,  265. 
San  Diego,  Fort,  28. 
San  Juan  Hill,  365. 
San  Juan  y  Martinez,  241,  263. 
San  Miguel,  Antonio,  146. 

Town  of,  342. 
Santa  Clara,  City  of,  396. 
Santa  Clara,  Province  of,  389-395. 

Gold  in,  437. 
Santa  Cruz  del  Sur,  384. 
Santa  Fe,  291,  293,  310,  311-312,  319. 

Springs,  Legend  of,  313-316. 
Santa  Rosalia,  319,  332. 
Santiago  de  Cuba,  351,  352-372,  401. 
Santiago  de  las  Vegas,  247. 
Santiago  Mine,  The,  437. 
San  Vicente  Vale,  265. 


Sarda,  Major,  288. 

Saucier,  Mr.  F.  X.,  341,  422. 

Sauvalle,  Don  Francisco  Adolfo,  227- 

231. 
Schafer,  Dr.,  of  the  Bronx,  497. 
Schoolhouse  at  Santiago,  365. 
Schools,  Public,  of  Cuba,  365-366. 
Shelley,  Lt.  James  E.,  225. 
Shipping  expenses  on  fruit,  246,  248, 

335. 
Shopping  in  Havana,  61-67. 
Siboney,  American  landing  at,  353. 
Siboney  Indians,  86. 
Sidewalks,   customs  concerning,   61- 

62. 
Origin  of,  9. 
Siesta,  the,  61. 
Siguanea  Bay,  282,  290. 

Sierra  de,  290. 
Slaves,  slavery,  etc.,  87,  222. 
Slevin,  E.  de  Laureal,  177,  179. 
Society,  Circles  of,  159-162. 
Soto,  Hernando  de,  29,  354,  355,  402. 
Spaniards  in  Cuba,  135-146. 
Spanish-American     Iron     Company, 

466,  495. 
War,  167,  353,  363-365. 
Stark's  sawmill,  328. 
Stenographer,  the  American,  in  Ha- 
vana, 154-157. 
Streets,  of    Havana,  names   of,  etc., 

14-17. 
Venders  on,  59-61. 
Suburbs  (see  also  Vedado),  8,  48-50. 
Sugar,   164,  248,  326,  335,  389-392, 

395. 
Swamps,  280,  290,  304,  375-376. 
Swedes,  as  colonists  in  Cuba,  456-458. 


Tacajo,  468. 

Taco  Taco,  226,  240,  247,  255. 

Taft,  William  Howard,  173-184. 

Tariff,  203. 

Taxation,  165,  194-199. 

Telegraph,  the  Daily,  77,  174-180. 

Templete,  The,  12-14. 

Terrill,  Major,  189. 

Theater,  Albisu,  69. 

Alhambra,  71. 

Grand,  71. 


512 


INDEX 


Theatre,  National,  69. 
Payret,  69. 
Polyteama,  71. 
Tirry,    Captain,    281,   297,    299-300, 

302. 
Tobacco,  235,  241,  264-265,  268-278, 

301,  394-395,  465. 
Torre,  Marquis  de  la,  273,  297. 
Towns,  Thomas  R.,  444. 
Train,  the  "Gunshy  Armored,"  177- 

178. 
"Treasure  Island,"  280. 
Treasure,  Search  for  buried,  218. 
Trinidad,  354,  384,  401. 
Trocha,  240,  400. 
Tunas,  Victoria  de  las,  423. 

U 

United   Fruit   Company,    245,    466- 

467,  469. 
University  of  Havana,  34-37. 


Van  Home,  R.  B.,  423. 

Sir  WiUiam,  408,  421. 
Vedado,  8,  48,  157-159. 
Vegetable  gardening,  in  Isle  of  Pines, 

333. 
Veguero  (see  also  Tobacco),  steamer, 

217. 
Velazquez,   Adelantado   Don   Diego, 

3,  13,  350,  355,  384,  401,  434, 

436. 
Vento,  water  works,  18. 


Viiiales,  valley   and    town    of,   263- 

267,  369. 
Virginius,  crew  of,  366. 
Vista  Alegre,  427. 
Vuelta  Abajo,  236,  270,  274-278,  301, 

425,  437. 

W 

Walls,  city,  of  Havana,  33-34. 
War,    "The  Little,"   of   August,   77, 

173-181,  253,  269. 
The  Ten  Years',  269,  447. 
Washington,  George,  358. 
Watchman,  night,  institution  of,  53, 

361. 
Weather,  "the  Wet  Season,"  75. 
Webster,  Mr.  Benton,  226. 
White,  "passing  for,"  83,  88-94. 
Woodfred,  466,  496-500. 
Wood,    General   Leonard,   Governor, 

72,    170,   189,    191,   365,   368- 

369. 
Woods,  Hard,  398-399,  420. 
Wright,  Charles,  228. 


Yarigua,  423. 

Young,  Messrs.,  of  Santa  Teresa,  317. 

Young,  Mr.,  477. 


Zayas,  Dr.  Alfredo,  186. 

The,  family,  Isle  of  Pines,  298. 
Zaza  del  Medio,  396. 
Zelaver  family.  The,  298. 


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